Wounded deputy visits partner at Harborview

Pierce County sheriff spokesman Ed Troyer said Sgt. Nick Hausner left Madigan Army Medical Center on Thursday morning.

The first thing he wanted to do was see his injured partner.

Hausner was escorted to Seattle to visit Deputy Kent Mundell, who suffered life-threatening injuries and is hospitalized at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

The motorcade carrying Hausner arrived at the hospital just before noon, and he departed about 90 minutes later.

Mundell and Hausner were shot by David E. Crable while trying to remove him from a home in Eatonville.

Mundell, 44, managed to shoot back and kill Crable, investigators said.

Troyer said Mundell and Hausner were called to the house after Crable got in a fight with his brother and daughter.

The deputies arrived and convinced Crable, who was intoxicated, to leave the house, Troyer said.

Investigators say 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.

"At some point he changed his mind about taking the ride out of there and opened fire on the deputies," Troyer said.

Mundell was shot multiple times and airlifted to Harborview, where he remains on life support. Fellow law enforcement officers have maintained a constant vigil on the ninth floor at the hospital since the shooting.

"It's somber. It's not easy for those guys," Bellevue Police Lt. Tony Dempsey said outside the hospital on Thursday. "It's not easy for any officer."

State troopers and Pierce County deputies escorted Hausner back to his house in Eatonville after his visit, the first time he's been home since the shooting a few miles from where he lives.

Hausner was shot in the neck, barely missing his carotid artery and spinal cord.

"I think he's doing pretty good," Dempsey said."I think he's doing as good as we could hope for."

Officers arrived at the hospital throughout the day, just wanting to do anything they can to help the families of the wounded deputies, especially after the loss of five other officers in two months.

"Halloween, and then Thanksgiving, and now Christmas... I cannot imagine the grief that those families are going through," Lynnwood Police Sgt. David Harris said. "All of our hearts and thoughts and prayers are with the families."

Fellow deputies and officers are planning to stay at the hospital around the clock, even on Christmas day, and we understand that Mundell's family will celebrate the holiday privately by his bedside.