Seattle police shoot man in Magnolia

SEATTLE — A 23-year-old man was shot by Seattle police Saturday in Magnolia.

Shortly before noon, officers were called to near 36th Ave West and West Smith Street. The neighborhood is about five blocks from the Magnolia Playfield.

Police said that a man who was armed with a large kitchen knife charged at officers. One of the officers, a veteran officer based out of the West Precinct, opened fire after the man refused to put down his weapon. The man was shot in the torso.

Officers immediately began performing first aid on the man and called for medics.

The man, who was alert and conscious, was then transported to Harborview Hospital. A Seattle Fire Department spokesperson said that he was in critical condition and Harborview confirmed that he was in surgery on Saturday night.

The man lives with his parents in the home where the shooting occurred.

Neighbors told KIRO 7 reporter Deborah Horne that they would describe him as "disturbed."

Charles Foster said he was pruning his plants when he first saw a police car approaching the man's home.

"Then all of a sudden," Foster said, "whir, whir, whir, seven more of them coming up the hill."

Garold Harford said he was doing yard work just before noon when he heard a commotion outside his yard.

"The son's coming down, wielding a knife and threatening the dad," Harford said. "And the dad's pleading with him to put down the knife. He didn't. It slowed up a bit. The next thing I know, he charged after the dad the police officers, and there was one shot, and at that point they were sill asking him to put the knife down. He struggled and he was fighting with them, and it seemed like it lasted forever, but probably a couple of minutes, before the paramedics came and they finally got him subdued."

Harford said that he thought the police handled the situation well. He said that police called the man by name at least seven times, asking him to put the knife down, but that the man ran toward them and was shot.

KIRO 7 confirmed that the man's first name is "Josh" and that he has had some brushes with the law, including shoplifting and disorderly conduct.

Detective Jamieson said that the neighbors had no reason to be afraid following the shooting.

"It's not a case of a stranger running around terrorizing a neighborhood," Jamieson said. "It sounds like it was contained to just a single residence."

This is the fourth officer-involved shooting in Seattle this year.

The first Seattle case was the Jan. 27 shooting of domestic violence suspect James D. Anderson, who police said fired at officers before being killed outside the Twilight Exit in the Central District. The second was the Feb. 26 shooting of Jack Keewatinawin, a schizophrenic sex offender who was in a domestic violence dispute at his father’s Greenwood home. Police said he was shot after he raised a piece of rebar over a downed officer.

The other case occurred March 22 when Bellevue police served a search warrant at a Seattle home in the 5000 block of 43^rd Avenue South. Bellevue investigators described suspect Russell Smith as a career, violent criminal.

KIRO