A team of outside law enforcement officers finished up their scene investigation this morning where a deputy fatally shot a Napavine man along state Route 6 near Boistfort.
Updated at 8:52 a.m., 9:11 a.m. and 5:06 p.m.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
A Lewis County sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a motorist west of Adna this morning the sheriff’s office said lunged out of his vehicle with a knife.
It happened about 12:17 a.m. on the 2300 block of state Route 6, according to the sheriff’s office.
The dead man is identified only as a 64-year-old Napavine resident.
According to a news release from the sheriff’s office: The deputy was on routine patrol when he saw a car parked in a turnout and stopped to see if the driver needed assistance.
“When the deputy approached the vehicle he observed a man with, what appeared to be, self-inflicted lacerations and bleeding heavily,” the sheriff’s office states. “When the deputy tried to speak with the man, the man lunged out of his vehicle with a large knife and charged the deputy.”
The sheriff’s office says the deputy was forced to shoot to avoid being attacked.
Aid was summoned and the motorist was pronounced dead shortly after aid arrived, according to the sheriff’s office.
A team of outside law enforcement officers was summoned to the scene near Boistfort this morning to investigate.
The unnamed deputy is a nine-year veteran of the office. He is being put on paid administrative leave as is standard procedure, according to Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown.
The incident took place at a large gravel turnout just east of the South Fork Chehalis RIver Bridge near Boistfort.
The deputy was alone when it occurred, according to Brown.
Asked what made the deputy think the man’s injuries were self inflicted, she said: Because there was nobody else around.
The sheriff’s office has no reason to believe there was anyone else involved, according to Brown.
She said the dead man’s name will be released by the Lewis County Coroner’s Office, which customarily doesn’t happen until family has been notified.
Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod said his office is working to locate the next-of-kin and then confirm the identity of the deceased. An autopsy is scheduled for tomorrow.
A stretch of state Route 6 between Spooner Road and Boistfort Road was shut down until about 6:30 a.m. for the investigation, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation.
It was just 16 months ago when another Lewis County deputy fatally shot another Napavine man. In June 2011, Deputy Matt McKnight opened fire on a 33-year-old man he thought was armed with a knife on a residential street in Napavine.
That incident too occurred at night time, and McKnight said Steven V. Petersen began to charge him.
The deputy was cleared but last month Petersen’s family filed a lawsuit saying McKnight engaged in a ‘shoot first and ask questions later’ approach to law enforcement.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
Thank you DCE for everything you do.
You are a bright light shining through the ignorance and hatred towards common-sense that plagues nearly every community in America, not just Lewis County.
But if your intentions were to expose corruption at the highest levels of law enforcement, you couldn’t have chosen a better place.
Keep up the fantastic work. Keep doing what you do. And remember, great people endure many hardships and hatred from ignorant people. But, they were able to overcome and that is what makes them great.
You’re a special person and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.
Thank you George you are always the quiet voice of reason in a big loud crazy world.
Sunshinegirl I will prove you wrong once again. The Government did cover up Agent Orange. Here is the Time News Article…http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1948084,00.html If you would just research the facts instead of going of the lack of mis information then you would begain to like me. The fact is the Government did cover up agent orange. Dont hate me because I’m right sunshinegirl…….
Chris that is a great Idea. We need to hear from the community. We could have a Town Hall meeting. I could even post a forum on my web site. I know my web site seem a little wild but at the end of the day I always come through with the facts! And that’s what makes people hate me. The facts are hard to swallow!
The vast majority of people in Lewis County see that a member of the local Law Enforcement community had to use deadly force to stop a threat. Could he have used other means? Yes… if it was daytime, he was 50 feet away, and had back-up.
In this case, a man is now dead at the hands of a cop. Who is the real victim here? The man who lunged out of his car with a weapon, or the cop? I would have to say it is the cop… the man with the weapon did what he did, and the cop did what he is trained to do.
Does this mean that cops are out there begging and pleading for the chance to shoot people? Far from it… that’s the last thing they would want to do. Yet, there are those out there who make them do what they have to do…
“Dirty Cop Enforcer” is a victim. A professional victim. He will never be happy unless pure anarchy reigns over all of us. His “persecution complex” shows in his every post. But, truth be told, the REAL victim in this case is the cop who had to fire his weapon, for he must live the rest of his days knowing that he has taken a life.
Does he relish in that fact? If he does, he doesn’t deserve to be a cop, let alone handle a firearm. Most likely, he is having nightmares over having to shoot someone. Let us all hope that he can recover from this, and return to the streets to protect those of us who appreciate the job they are doing.