Olympia Police shoot and kill a man on Starbucks property after they say he pulled a knife on officers.
Police say before that, the man was behaving in an “angry” manner at several businesses.
The shooting happened at Sleater Kinney Road and Martin Way SE in Olympia around 10:30 a.m. Monday, in the Starbucks drive-thru.
“I was sitting in the car. All of a sudden, I heard four shots get fired and I saw him fall,” said Jaeli Kimbrough, who was in a nearby parking lot. “It’s so sad. It, it’s unfortunate.”
Lacey Police is now leading this investigation as part of the Capitol Metro Independent Investigation Team. Police say the man first caused a disturbance at the AM/PM convenience store over some items.
“He became very disruptive and said he wasn’t going to buy them, was going to walk out with them. He was in confrontation with their employees. They were able to get him to leave and they called police,” said Laura Wohl, the public information officer for Lacey Police.
A former employee says his family member was behind the counter.
“She said he came around the counter and tried grabbing her to kidnap her,” said Miguel Renteria, who later came by the convenience store. “She said my other co-worker grabbed some pepper spray and sprayed him in the face.”
Police say he then went inside the nearby Starbucks.
“What I’ve been told so far is he was very angry and definitely intimidating,” Wohl said.
#BREAKING: man shot by Olympia PD has died.
— Deedee Sun (@DeedeeKIRO7) August 22, 2022
- police say he was “angry” and causing a disturbance at the am/pm & Starbucks
- then was in the road on Martin Way
- officers got him out of the road & say he pulled a knife on officers
- pd shot him in the Starbucks dive thru pic.twitter.com/A6naNAbEFV
Police say officers got him out of the Starbucks, but that’s when the man walked into traffic on Martin Way. People in the area saw the commotion.
“I just saw a dude running with no shirt on. He ran to the road. They stopped. There was a little provoked argument, and they started chasing him in front of the gas station, turned into a wrestling match,” said Nick Campos, who works at one of the stores in the complex.
Then police say after that, the man walked to the Starbucks drive-thru.
“Officers tried to de-escalate the situation but eventually he pulled a knife on officers, and one of the officers fired,” Wohl said.
1/3: Oly PD Officers were involved in an Officer Involved Shooting at about 10:30 this morning. **Preliminary Information:** While attempting to arrest a suspect of a crime, the suspect wielded a knife and attacked officers. One officer shot the suspect.
— Olympia Police Dept. (@OlyPD) August 22, 2022
But people are wondering if the man was armed.
“I saw just a shirt in his hand, that’s all,” Kimbrough said.
“We saw the whole provokement, we never saw a knife, all my co-workers saw it too, they never saw a knife,” Campos said.
Images from Chopper 7 overhead did capture images of an item on the ground that looked like it could be a knife. However, police were not able to confirm that as of Monday evening.
“Was there a weapon recovered at the scene?” KIRO7′s Deedee Sun asked.
“At this point, they’re still doing the crime scene investigation,” Wohl said. “It was one of those situations that no officer wants to face… they did everything they could to make that situation end positively.”
Olympia police officers do not currently wear body cameras, but the department plans to get them for all officers in the fall of 2022.
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