LAKE STEVENS — The man killed by Lake Stevens police last week threw a woman to the ground multiple times as he tried to steal her car, and later climbed into the driver’s seat of an officer’s car, investigators said.
On Thursday, the Snohomish County Multiple Agency Response Team, or SMART, released the first new details in the Jan. 13 killing of a man suspected of a car jacking and then leading police on a chase. SMART is the task force of local law enforcement officers who investigate police use of force. The squad posts weekly updates to its website on each investigation it’s conducting.
Late in the morning Jan. 13, a man, 30, followed a woman, 33, as she exited a store in the Frontier Village shopping center and walked to her van in the parking lot, according to SMART. The man fought the woman, throwing her to the ground multiple times before fleeing in her van south on Highway 9.
The woman suffered non-life threatening injuries, detectives reported.
As the man fled the parking lot, he reportedly hit three vehicles with the van.
Around 11:30 a.m., Lake Stevens police located the man driving on Highway 9. He got out of the vehicle and fled from officers on foot, according to SMART. The officers ran after him.
The suspect ran toward a marked patrol car. He got in the driver’s seat, leading to a fight between a Lake Stevens officer and the man. An officer shot the suspect. He died at the scene in the 9600 block of 20th Street SE, less than two miles from Frontier Village. It was unclear if the man had any other weapon besides what may have been in the patrol car.
As of Friday, the Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office had yet to publicly identify the deceased or determine the official cause and manner of his death.
The officer who shot the man had been with the department for 12 years. In line with standard procedure, he was placed on administrative leave. No officers suffered serious injuries, SMART spokesperson Nathan Fabia told reporters last week.
The investigation continued Friday.
Jake Goldstein-Street: 425-339-3439; jake.goldstein-street@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @GoldsteinStreet.
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