Officer opens fire at pickup in Bothell after car chase
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BOTHELL, Wash. -- A 68-year-old Edmonds man was injured when an officer opened fire on his pickup truck after a Friday afternoon police chase.
Video from KOMO's Air 4 at the scene showed a pickup truck with at least seven bullet holes in the windshield near Wayne Public Golf Course, in the 16700 block of 96th Avenue NE in Bothell.
Medics responded after the shooting and the pickup driver was taken to Harborview Medical Center with unspecified injuries.
The incident began earlier in Edmonds when a woman who was concerned about her husband called the police, said Cmdr. Don Duncan of the Mountlake Terrace police. The woman said her husband left home, was suicidal and possibly armed.
Officers caught up with the man near the interstate and attempted to stop him. That led to a low-speed chase that ended near the Wayne Golf Course in Bothell.
Course employee Ben Richards was inside the clubhouse during the incident said he heard the gun shots.
"I was in the office, walked out and heard some gun shots and knew something was going down," he said.
Three different law enforcement agencies - from Edmonds, Mountlake Terrace and Bothell - took part in the incident and it was not immediately clear which of those employs the officer who opened fire. It's also not clear if the shooting victim was armed.
The man's condition is unknown.
Video from KOMO's Air 4 at the scene showed a pickup truck with at least seven bullet holes in the windshield near Wayne Public Golf Course, in the 16700 block of 96th Avenue NE in Bothell.
Medics responded after the shooting and the pickup driver was taken to Harborview Medical Center with unspecified injuries.
The incident began earlier in Edmonds when a woman who was concerned about her husband called the police, said Cmdr. Don Duncan of the Mountlake Terrace police. The woman said her husband left home, was suicidal and possibly armed.
Officers caught up with the man near the interstate and attempted to stop him. That led to a low-speed chase that ended near the Wayne Golf Course in Bothell.
Course employee Ben Richards was inside the clubhouse during the incident said he heard the gun shots.
"I was in the office, walked out and heard some gun shots and knew something was going down," he said.
Three different law enforcement agencies - from Edmonds, Mountlake Terrace and Bothell - took part in the incident and it was not immediately clear which of those employs the officer who opened fire. It's also not clear if the shooting victim was armed.
The man's condition is unknown.
Hey KOMO can you follow up on this story?
Lessee... Woman asks police to try and find and help suicidal husband. Police respond by trying to help the husband out with his death wish. Kind of them. When will this gung ho mindless reliance on their guns even when they have obvious other options end? Hope the guy is OK, and getting the help he really needed...
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 @P.W.R. It's obvious you were there and know the whole story. Care to share?
"The incident began earlier in Edmonds when a woman who was concerned about her husband called the police [...] The woman said her husband left home, was suicidal and possibly armed."
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There is a sad lesson to be learned here: if your loved one is acting suicidal, DO NOT CALL POLICE!!! That is like pouring gasoline on a brush fire to try to put it out! I would like to say that our police agencies are more sensitive to these sorts of issues, but they are NOT! They almost always take the effective de facto position that "suicide is illegal: if you try to commit suicide, I WILL SHOOT TO KILL!"
 @JLS1950 Cops are trained to: SHOOT TO STOP the threat. *******  NOT to: "SHOOT TO KILL" as you suggest in your comment.  Your comment shows ignorance and was obviously meant to be inflammatory.Â
 @K.M. May Cops are trained to fire five rounds into the center of the largest part of the torso near the heart. The result is nearly always fatal. There is nothing "inflammatory" about it: that is what they do.
 @JLS1950 The cops have probably learned to take this stance because they know that "SUICIDE and HOMICIDE are FLIP SIDES OF THE SAME COIN".   ******   It has been well established that a high percentage of people who get into the state of mind where they want to kill themselves, will kill other innocent people in the process; be it someone with whom they are angry & they want to get even, or their spouse or children whom they (psychotically) believe would be 'better off dead' than to go on living after he kills himself, or other innocent people who get caught in the 'line of fire' (IE, other drivers sharing the road with the suicidal driver, innocent bystanders exposed to the suicidal bullet, etc)  **********  YOU DON'T SEE cops responding to the report of a suicidal person who is threatening to end his life by overdosing on pills the same as they would respond to the report of a suicidal person who is threatening to end his life with a gun.  The cops aren't going to draw their guns on the man who is holding pills up to his mouth to swallow in an attempt to kill himself; But if that same suicidal man has a gun in his possession or in close proximity, you bet that the only prudent course of action is for the cops to respond with guns drawn.  What happens after that point is dictated by the suicidal person who has the gun.  No cop WANTS to kill another human being.  Come on man, seriously. THINK ABOUT IT ~ What possible 'positive' or 'rewarding' return could any cop get from taking this type of action?  Answer = NONE.  *****   Have you ever done any research on the many negative effects suffered by (most) cops who end up shooting and/or killing someone in the line of duty?  No cop would ever wish this upon themselves, and to suggest otherwise is simply foolish. Â
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 @K.M. May Actually, I believe I read a case very like that also: a person threatening to drink poison who was shot to death by police. Some years ago.
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 @nena Could sure fool me and every one else, nena. Seems like every week we hear another story of a cop shooting and killing a suicidal person - often one holding an UNLOADED weapon - after being told that the person is off-meds or deeply depressed or whatever. Police keep demonstrating again and again that they are not prepared to deal with medical or mental health issues.
 @K.M. May If you would go back to my statement, I did not say that cops should try to make that distinction: in response to a ridiculous claim by a poster since deleted here, I stated that there are numerous stories all the time of police shooting a suicidal person holding an empty gun. And my original statement was that police officers are in general neither qualified nor trained in dealing with suicidal people: the treat such as if they were fleeing armed robbers who had just shot the clerk in the qwikie mart. Police generally treat ANYBODY with a gun - often even someone licensed to carry - as a threat to be "neutralized" by hot lead. Note that police recently shot and killed a resident who had called them to report what he thought was a prowler indeed it is actually pretty common that police shoot the homeowner who is defending his home against an invader or prowler.Bottom line: if your loved one is suicidal, calling the police is like granting him or her that wish.
 @JLS1950  How would the cop know if a weapon is UNLOADED OR LOADED?  Answer:  IMPOSSIBLE TO TELL, until the crime scene is under control.  AND when the cop who mistakenly thought that the bad guy's weapon was UNLOADED, and therefore does NOT shoot the bad guy, the autopsy will show exactly what ammo the COP WAS SHOT with by the weapon that WAS LOADED!
 @JLS1950  Now where did officer nena run off to?   : )
 @nena " Your ignorant"  "Your a cop hater"  "You STFU"Â
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That is the extent of your argument? Â LOL... Like I said, You have nothing.Â
 @nena What department is your dad in?  Â
 @nena I agree that most police are caring and dedicated public servants. I have known such, including a former associate pastor years ago who went back to the SPD and ultimately became a detective. My grandfather was a Seattle cop during Prohibition, the Great Depression and WW-II. He was remembered and respected on the force long after he retired and passed away. But he also tended to deal with situations using one set of tools: his fists and his revolver.
But as I keep saying, police officers are not well-qualified to deal with health issues of ANY kind.
 @nena I would not expect a cop to know how to treat a toothache or strep throat. Likewise, a cop is not qualified to deal with mental health issues, depression and suicide. "in the heat of it", they tend to pull out the Glocks and start making big holes in things and people. And their "justification" is always the same: "I was in fear for my life!"
Comes back to my original point: cops only know how to deal with crime - not with people's health issues whether mental or other.
 @nena  @JLS1950 agree. if someone is suicidal, they're not mentally stable. if they're not mentally stable, they're bound to do whatever it takes to do their mission of "mentally unstableness". ignorance is among us!
Yep, have said it before. If you're having problems with a family member DO NOT CALL THE POLICE. They're trained to kill and thats their first choice in these kinds of situations.
I'm still of the opinion that we need to disarm our law enforcement people until they can receive better training than they get now. They are just too much of a danger for the civilian population.
 @Blindman No, you are wrong.  Cops are NOT trained to kill.  Cops are trained to STOP the threat before them.  Not to "KILL" the threat before them.  Cops are trained to specifically use the "FORCE NECESSARY TO EFFECT" THE (lawful) ARREST.  ***************************   MILITARY (& Military cops) MAY BE (probably are?)  "trained to kill", but not non-Military cops.  ABSOLUTELY, 100%, in no way whatsoever is it ever taught, authorized, encouraged or sanctioned, for cops to "kill" ANYONE, rather than first attempting to effect an arrest. ***************  SADLY, sometimes a person(s) whom law enforcement has reason to detain or probable cause to arrest,  refuses to submit to a cop, and so the cops' use of force escalates right on up the "use of force continuum" (ladder) until the arrest is effected.  ****************  It can be done the easy way or it can be done the hard way.  USUALLY, it is completely up to the person being arrested as to how it goes down.  I've been arrested before a few times and while I hated it and all that, and thought that SOME of the cops were rude or had bad attitudes, I always felt that as long as I complied, I was safe. Â
 @K.M. May You either are a cop (and a dishonest one at that) trying to make excuses - or you know nothing about police.
Once the wife called 911 to report her husband's state of mind, the conclusion was inevitable. Either he was going to kill himself or the cops were. I bet if the wife had to do it all over again, she wouldn't have called 911. Just sayin..
I am very glad the officers went home safely to their families. Hopefully the man will fully recover and go home to his family and friends.
 @al_wa sad.... I am thinking harsh thoughts about the officer that fired on most likely an unarmed elderly man. With the amount of officers involved the outcome should've been different. I wasn't there, and I only have this article to go by so I could be 100% wrong.
Wanna outrun the cops...dream on !
If you have nothing to hide,why run !?
 @scychan You may want to re-read the article, it was a "low-speed" chase
 @scychan Didn't read the article eh? silly rabbit wipe the spittle from your lips...
wait wait wait...there's an UPPER parking lot at Wayne??
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 @fury us dude i witnessed a man get gunned down by 3 cops and he later died. That man had a family and I became friends with his mom. She was devastated. You are some piece of work to wish that upon someone you don't even know. You should be ashamed of yourself.
@fury us Why would you say that? Do you know this person?
 @fury us why?
Sounds like suicide by cop
 @Elaine2  Its always suicide by cop when the cops tell it. Â
 @Andrew Bush  @Elaine2 Andrew, I think you should start a cop-haters-anonymous group. You share with each other all the horror stories of Nazi-SPD. On a more serious note, I think you should just ride-along a couple of nights, Rainier Avenue, MLK Way, or Kent, or Burien and just watch. Eventually your instincts will kick in, I promise. It might just change your attitude.
 @DDG  Never been.... have you? Â
@Andrew Bush @Komo Dragon So Mr. Bush, what have you been in jail for?
 @Komo Dragon The corruption never ends.Â
 @Andrew Bush you are a smart person, you will get new insights, just trust me on this one
 @Komo Dragon  A ride along will not undue all the years the entire city has been defrauded by the Seattle police. Â
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Live with the consequences? Â Boo hoo. Â tell that to the parents of people they lied on their reports to incarcerate. Â
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When every single officer keeps their mouths shut and allows us all to be sued over and over while their superiors repeated over and over we had accountability the entire department is corrupt. Â
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When human filth gets a badge everyone pays and now all budget are hit by all the unchecked lawlessness, the court costs and settlements by the most corrupt police department in the country.Â
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@Andrew Bush @Elaine2 Wow, you're some piece of work kiddo. Police officers don't go to work everyday saying 'golly I sure hope I get to gun someone down today'. They get to live with the consequences of that evening too. They will spend a lot of time asking themselves if they did the right thing. You need to stop judging these officers as though each and every one of them is a bloodthirsty and corrupt bully with a badge.
 @K.M. May  @what?  @Andrew  @Elaine2 YOU are way off base! You have NO idea the context of that statement.
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And I didn't say the cop was a friend. FAR from it. The cop DID mean they get to use baton and gun because he patted them as he said it.
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Why don't you jump to a few more conclusions, maybe you'll jump high enough to get some O2 in your brain.
 @Commenter87643  @what?  @Andrew  @Elaine2 "When the perp decides to run, that's when we have fun" -  BIG DEAL.  It doesn't sound to me like your cop friend was talking about KILLING anybody without justification, which is the subject matter that seem to be being addressed here.  You wish you TAPED HIM?  He didn't say "When the perp runs, that's when we get to kill him" or then it is "open season" or something like that.  HE PROBABLY just meant that sometimes,  as boring as police work can be at times, that a little FOOT CHASE after a bad guy who tries to run away, can be fun!  Or, even maybe a car chase (not that I approve of many of THOSE however)  I'm just saying that your point is WAY OFF BASE. That's all.
 @what?  @Andrew  @Elaine2 Actually, I knew one personally that thinks that way. "When the perp decides to run, that's when we have fun". And I sure wish I'd have known to tape that remark.
Victim?
 @Redemshank Exactly the "Victim" fired the first shots. Â
 @CB  @Redemshank The article did not state that the person
in the truck was the individual that initiated the gun fire, so what do you base
your statement on? Do you have additional information that has not been
reported by of the local media sources?
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 @CB  @Redemshank Just as I expected the individual
in the truck did not fire any shots---however he did wave his gun
around and by doing so authorized the police to regard him as a
threat to them and thus opened fire. ALL of the shots fired were
fired by the police against a perceived threat.
It was an attempt at suicide by cop.
 @pete1427  @Redemshank Happened at the entrance of my neighborhood. Was driving out when the police were taping off my neighborhood and medics were on scene.  Another neighbor said the man in the truck fired shots at the police first.Â
 @Redemshank "shooting victim" I guess you can say that even if the shooting was justified
Wonder if it has anything to do with the Belltown stabbing earlier this morning:
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"The group of men fled the scene in a gray truck or SUV before police arrived, heading north on 1st Avenue."
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http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Man-fatally-stabbed-while-walking-with-girlfriend-in-Belltown-175958231.html
Think there will be video , that depends doesn't it, No video problem , Video no problem.
 @realdeal  Usually its forget to turn on the video no problem ... if the video was rolling just deny it exists.Â
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That has been the standard practice for many many years. Â The corruption continues.Â
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 @nena  Poor Nena,  All she knows how to do is tell people to STFU.  Â
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Let me guess are you considering a job in law enforcement? Â Â
 @Andrew Bush Little old man driving slow most likely unarmed and not threatening anyone. I might be wrong here, but I think billy bob cop went over the edge.