Gunman dead after SWAT team fired upon during standoff

By KOMO Staff Published: Sep 2, 2012 at 3:42 PM PDT Last Updated: Sep 2, 2012 at 9:35 PM PDT
Gunman dead after SWAT team fired upon during standoff »Play Video
ARLINGTON, Wash. - An alleged gunman is dead after a SWAT team and other police officers came under fire Sunday from one or more shooters during a tense armed standoff in a rural area outside of Arlington.

One suspect was later found shot to death by police and officers are still searching the area to make sure a second shooter wasn't involved and still at large. A weapon was found on the gunman's body and investigators haven't said if he died from police fire.

The drama began at about 1:30 p.m. when a 26-year-old man who lives in the area thought he heard gunshots or fireworks. He hustled his kids inside the house then went to investigate with his father.

The father and son heard another bullet whistle through the branches of a nearby tree, then the son realized he had been shot in the calf. They ran home and called 911.

Deputies responded to the scene, and then they also came under fire. One patrol car was reportedly hit, but no officers were injured.

A SWAT team soon arrived at the scene, about a mile off Highway 530 near Jim Creek Road, and SWAT team officers reported multiple gunshot hits on their armored vehicle.

Police units reportedly then came under fire from different types of weapons, including a high-powered rifle, leading them to believe that there could be more than one shooter.

As the gun battle stretched through most of the afternoon, more armored vehicles were requested from other jurisdictions as far away as Seattle and Whatcom County as a police helicopter circled the scene.

Some residents in the area have been evacuated or warned not to leave their homes. A few on the edge of the scene were allowed back in late Sunday night but others closer to where the gunman was found were still told to stay away.

At the height of the standoff, scanner reports from the scene sounded like a war zone, with multiple police and sheriff units coordinating and positioning themselves strategically.

Eventually police were able to pinpoint the location of a suspected shooter, and later found his body.

The 26-year-old man who was shot in the calf at the beginning of the incident was taken to Cascade Hospital in Arlington, where he was undergoing treatment.