GRANITE FALLS, Wash. — Hans Hansen shot at police officers from Granite Falls to Lake Stevens to Marysville in October 2014.
Hansen told police he wanted to die. Hansen was shot in the head and survived.
On Tuesday he was sentenced to 71 years for the shooting spree that ended with one officer shot in the leg and the community terrorized.
His wife, Angie Hansen, spoke to KIRO 7's Alison Grande after the sentencing.
"I believe that night God was looking over everyone, including the officers that were involved," said Angie Hansen, "He should have died, and I know that's why he stopped. He thought he was dead."
Angie Hansen said her husband had a mental breakdown.
"He just mentally lost it," she said.
Angie Hansen said her husband had just found out he needed one of his legs amputated due to vascular disease and they were having financial problems because he wasn't able to work.
She said she had no idea he was suicidal; he was a quiet man. She found out about the shooting because a relatives heard about it on the police scanner.
Angie Hansen got in her car and went to see if it was true.
"I believe that night God was looking over everyone, including all the officers that were involved. God protected them and God protected Hans from being killed," said Angie.
A jury convicted him of multiple counts of first-degree assault, drive-by shooting and firearms charges. He was also charged with two counts of attempted first-degree murder but the jury couldn't reach a verdict.
The prosecutor asked for the maximum sentence.
Marysville Police Sgt. Peter Shove addressed the court, "His failure to succeed in murdering anyone in this incident is not for lack of trying. It is because my friends, the courageous, good people he was trying to kill, prevented him from doing so."
He asked the judge to give Hansen a life sentence.
"I too have been deeply impacted by Mr. Hansen's crimes -- sleep interruptions, nightmares, sadness, anxiety," Shove said.
The defense asked for a sentence below the sentencing range.
Hans Hansen chose not to speak.
The judge called Hansen's behavior "egregious" and gave him 71 years.
Angie Hansen wishes her husband would have taken a plea deal that would have carried a sentence close to 30 years instead. She she said he didn't want to plead guilty to attempted murder because he wasn't trying to hurt anyone else.
"That 40-50 minutes of his life that characterize him now is not who he has been for the last 43 years," said Angie Hansen.
She knew he was down, but didn't know he was suicidal. She also thinks of the officers whose lives were put in danger that night.
"I'm really sorry they were put in that position," she said. "I know if Hans were in his right mind, that is nothing he would have done."
She visits the jail three times a week, and sees her husband on a video screen. He talks to their son on the phone.
Angie Hanson hopes he can get the medical and mental health care he needs in prison.
KIRO
