BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, Wash. — A situation that began with a man firing shots at the Bainbridge Island shoreline and law enforcement officers at about 8:30 p.m. Saturday ended with the shooter being killed by police around 1 a.m. Sunday after a coordinated response from regional law enforcement agencies.
The Bainbridge Island Police Department originally responded to calls of shots being fired from a vessel in Eagle Harbor.
When police arrived, the suspect began shooting at the officers.
On Sunday, Susan Stephens was standing on the Eagle Harbor dock, a few feet from the boat where she and her husband Gary live.
"I was just walking right here and start to life my gate," she said. Then she heard shots.
"I couldn't tell where he was shooting," she said. Stephens added she couldn't determine where -- or what -- the man was shooting at, but Bainbridge Island Police Chief Matthew Hamner said they believe the man did "hit the hull of a boat."
When officers arrived to the scene, they appeared to become targets.
"They heard the rounds whizzing over their heads," Hamner said. "They got behind a Conex box. Then the rounds were bouncing off the water and coming at them."
Soon, the SWAT team arrived, along with the U.S. Coast Guard, F.B.I. and every other local law enforcement agency.
After several hours of working to end the situation peacefully, members of the SWAT Team boarded two boats and approached the suspect's vessel.
"They spent an hour and a half trying to get him out of the boat," Gary Stephens said. At one point, the man appeared to obey the officer's commands, he said.
"He was in the dinghy" and had his hands raised over his head, Stephens said. "Then I saw his hands go down and he got back up on the boat."
It was then that the man reportedly grabbed a shotgun and pointed it at police. He was then shot by police, Stephens said.
His wife, Susan, said the man's boat had been anchored in Eagle Harbor for about three weeks.
Hamner said the man's last known address was in Seattle and he is 34 years old. Police said they do not know what the man's motive was.
The Washington State Patrol is investigating the incident.
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