Suspect in iPod killing dies after shooting by deputies
The suspect, 41-year-old John Chinh Vu, had been the focus of a police manhunt since Thursday, when a 21-year-old Olympia man was shot to death during an argument outside a house in Lacey.
On Saturday afternoon, Thurston County sheriff's deputies surrounded a home on Judd Street in Olympia after getting word that Vu might be holed up there.
As other people were being evacuated from the home, deputies said, Vu tried to escape from the home through a back window.
Deputies challenged Vu and there was a confrontation. Vu did not stop, so deputies fired, hitting him at least once in the torso.
Vu was taken to St. Peter's Hospital in Olympia, where he died of his injuries at about 8 p.m. Saturday, said Lt. Chris Mealy with the Thurston County Sheriff's Department.
Vu had been charged with second-degree murder following Thursday's shooting in Lacey. The victim of that shooting was identified earlier as David J. Mapu.
 David Mapu |
"My son died from helping another man. It should have been prevented," said his mother, Ilaisa Mapu Daidad. "My son was always willing to put others before himself."
Ilaisa had just come home from Iraq and was devastated by the news of her son's death. She was on her way to see her son for the first time Thursday night, but the shooting happened first.
"I didn't come home to bury my son. I came home to spend time with him for the holidays, and this is not the gift that I asked for," she said.
After learning that Vu had been shot by deputies, she said, "He took my son's life. I have no pity for him."
Thurston County Chief Criminal Deputy Jim Chamberlain said Vu has an extensive criminal history dating back to the early 1980s, mostly in California.