EVERETT — The two police officers who shot and killed Charles Hubbard outside his Everett home March 11 have been identified, according to a press release from the Skagit-Island Multiple Response Team.
The SMART team identified the officers as Everett police officer Wintch, a seven-year veteran, and Snohomish County deputy Bittinger, a nine-year veteran.
Authorities didn’t disclose the first names of the officers, but Everett city records show an officer named Blake Wintch was sworn in in 2016. County records identify Myles Bittinger as a deputy.
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The Snohomish County medical examiner’s office determined that Hubbard’s cause of death was homicide by gunshot wounds. The legal definition of homicide can be classified in different ways, including: murder, homicide by abuse, manslaughter, excusable homicide, and justifiable homicide, SMART spokesperson Lt. Mike Moore said in the press release.
Officers responded to a report of domestic violence around 11:20 p.m. on March 10 at a home in the 800 block of 91st Place SW, the press release said. The man inside the house was seen “looking out the window and not responding,” Moore wrote. The Snohomish County Region 1 SWAT Team was called in as police tried to negotiate with the man.
Officers reported seeing him armed with a gun. Around 1:20 a.m., the SWAT Team entered the backyard and “gave verbal demands,” according to the press release. Officers Wintch and Bittinger opened fire, and Hubbard died at the scene.
After the passage of Washington State Initiative 940 in 2018 and Substitute House Bill 1064 in 2019, an independent investigation is required whenever deadly force is used, Skagit-Island authorities said.
Jonathan Tall: 425-339-3486; jonathan.tall@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @EDHJonTall
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