Father visits wounded deputy in hospital

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By Keith Eldridge

Summary

Deputy Kent Mundell is in the Intensive Care Unit at Harborivew Medical Center where he remains unconscious and on a ventilator. His father flew in from Texas on Wednesday night to see him.

Story Published: Dec 23, 2009 at 6:39 PM PDT

Story Updated: Dec 24, 2009 at 10:18 AM PDT

Father visits wounded deputy in hospital
SEATTLE -- The father of the Pierce County deputy injured in a shooting traveled a long way to visit his son in the hospital on Wednesday.

Kent Mundell, Sr. flew in from Texas to see his son, who is fighting to stay alive. A motorcade, formed on the spur of the moment, led the worried father to his son at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

"There's not a second thought to that," said Sgt. David Harris. "We did not want his father coming from Sea-Tac Airport to the hospital, unescorted."

Deputy Kent Mundell is in the Intensive Care Unit at Harborivew Medical Center where he remains unconscious and on a ventilator. The deputy was shot in the head, and has not breathed on his own since.

"His wife is there by his bedside and others come in and see him," said hospital spokesperson Susan Gregg-Hanson.

"It's tough," Harris said. "It's just a couple weeks ago, we helped with the Lakewood Four ... And the week before that was (Seattle) Officer Tim Brenton.

"Halloween, and then Thanksgiving, and now, Christmas. It's just, I cannot imagine the grief that those families are going through, and all of a sudden. All of our hearts and thoughts and prayers are with the families."

Law enforcement officers from all over the region have been visiting around the clock to lend the Mundell family their support. They're all praying for the 10-year-veteran, who was shot multiple times on Monday night.

Det. Ed Troyer said Deputy Kent Mundell and Sgt. Nick Hausner ran into trouble while trying to remove an intoxicated man, David E. Crable, from a home near Eatonville.

Investigators said Crable was concealing a gun in clothes he was holding and fired about 10 shots at the two deputies from just a few feet away. Mundell, 44, was hit multiple times, but managed to shoot back and kill Crable, Troyer said.

Hausner is improving at Madigan Army Medical Center where he's listed in stable condition. Mundell's condition, however, has not improved.

Gregg-Hanson said the support from the community is helping the deputy's family cope.

"The family feels it and they're fully aware of the support and obviously they appreciate it. It's a hard time. It's a hard time for everybody," she said.

The Mundell family has seen such a huge outpouring at the hospital that family members have asked that no more flowers be sent here as they can't handle any more.

They recommend sending a message via Harborview's Web site.