OLYMPIA – A driver, sought on a warrant from Montana, fled from a Washington State Patrol trooper responding to an unrelated crash and was shot to death by the trooper after a high-speed chase, the patrol said.
The dead man was identified Tuesday by the Thurston County sheriff’s office as Harley Andrew Moniz, 20, of Bozeman, Mont. The patrol identified the trooper as Jon Nelson, 42, an 11-year veteran. Nelson has been placed on administrative leave, standard procedure in officer-involved shootings, the patrol said.
Moniz, whose driver’s license had been revoked, was being sought on a $120,000 felony warrant, details of which were not immediately available, the patrol said. In addition, he faced seven charges for habitual traffic offenses and was being sought on a misdemeanor warrant from Aberdeen, Trooper Brandy Kessler said.
The patrol said Nelson was southbound on U.S. 101 northwest of Olympia, emergency lights flashing, when he tried to pass a sedan that took off at 90 mph.
With Nelson in pursuit, the sedan used the shoulder to pass other vehicles for about eight minutes until a spike strip placed by law enforcement officers deflated its tires at the Steamboat Island Road exit, Kessler said.
After the sedan struck the patrol car on a gravel road, “shots were fired” and the driver was killed, Kessler said.
Kessler would not say whether the dead man had a gun.
Patrol Sgt. Kristene O’Shannon said Nelson, who fired his service revolver, had not previously been involved in a shooting on the job. He was not injured.
Under such circumstances, “a vehicle is considered a deadly weapon,” Kessler said.
A woman and a 9-month-old boy in the sedan were unhurt, and the woman was being questioned, sheriff’s Lt. Christopher Mealy said.
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