Seattle police shoot, kill man with knife

The Associated Press

SEATTLE — Hours after two police officers were lauded for their handling of a shootout following a robbery, a suicidal man was shot to death after lunging at four other officers with a knife, police said.

The latest confrontation was the seventh shooting involving city police this year.

Officer Duane Fish gave the following account:

Early Tuesday a woman reported a man had threatened to kill himself. Four officers, including two with special weapons and tactics training but assigned to regular duty, found a 23-year-old man holding a knife to his own throat in a Lake City-area house.

When he became agitated, police fired a stun gun called a Tazer, but that failed to subdue the man and he was shot three times in the abdomen when he lunged at the officers, Fish said.

The man died soon afterward at Harborview Medical Center.

Names and other details remain unclear, including the relationship of the man and woman and whether either lived in the house.

On Monday, police chief Gil Kerlikowske praised the discipline and performance of officers Daniel Espinoza, 35, and Michael Waters, 38, who confronted, shot and wounded Derond Potts, 22, of Tukwila, outside a busy strip mall following a robbery in the city’s south end.

"By putting themselves between the gunman and the businesses, they quite possibly prevented hostages from being taken," Kerlikowske said.

Both officers remain on paid leave as is standard following shootings by police.

Potts, whose arrest record dates back to age 15 in Charlotte, N.C., was listed in satisfactory condition with shoulder and back wounds and was under guard at Harborview.

Police gave the following account:

About 1 p.m. Sunday, a man robbed a sandwich shop and fled with about $100 from the store and a wallet and checkbook from a customer.

Soon afterward, police saw someone fitting the robber’s description driving a car which had been stolen and chased the car into a dead end near a doughnut shop in Burien.

Waters used his patrol car to stop traffic on nearby First Avenue South, a major artery, and to block an escape attempt while Espinoza took a protected position between parked cars to block the gunman’s path to the doughnut shop.

Both opened fire after Potts got out of the car and shot once at Waters with a semiautomatic pistol.

Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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