It's happened again.
The Pierce County Sheriff's Department has confirmed an officer-involved shooting.
Two officers reportedly were shot in rural Pierce County north of Eatonville and south of Graham at Tanwax Lake after responding to a domestic violence call. Apparently two brothers were in a heated argument.
I apologize for the short diary but I felt that this was important. Local news is covering this right now...
Two Deputies are in critical condition tonight. Please keep them in your prayers.
Both deputies are in critical condition. One was airlifted to Seattle's Harborview Medical Center, the other was taken by ambulance to Madigan Medical Center in Tacoma.
One of the officers was hit multiple times, but one or both officers were abel to return fire.
The suspect - a 35-year-old man - was also shot and died at the scene.
As most of you know, we have seen more than our share of officer fatalities in Western Washington in the past couple of months. Four Lakewood officers were executed last month: Sgt. Mark Renninger, and officers Tina Griswold, Ronald Owens and Greg Richards. On Halloween, Seattle officer Tim Brenton lost his life in the line of duty.
This news comes less than a month after a gunman shot and killed four Lakewood Police officers inside a coffee shop, and less than two months after a Seattle Police Officer was killed in the Leschi neighborhood.
The Seattle P-I reports
The sergeant and deputy responded to a domestic violence incident off Tanwax Court East. Two brothers were involved, and one invited law enforcement inside. Police said the initial call was for an unwanted guest.
One of the brothers was hiding upstairs and shot one of the deputies multiple times, Troyer said. That deputy was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle; the other was flown to Madigan Army Hospital.
Please keep these officers in your thoughts tonight. I will update if more info becomes available.
UPDATE: A little more information on the circumstances:
One man invited police into the home while another man "intentionally hid and armed himself," Troyer said. When police tried to make contact with the second man he opened fire on the deputies.
"A lot of rounds were fired," Troyer said.
Troyer did not know if this was an intentional setup and if the man who wasn’t armed knew that the other man was.
UPDATE II: Ed Troyer, the Pierce County Law Enforcement spokesman says that it was an ambush. Lord have mercy.
The Tacoma News-Tribune reports:
The two officers, one a sergeant and one a deputy, were answering a call about an unwanted subject in a house and were met at the front door by one of two brothers, Troyer said.
When they entered the house, the second brother opened fire and hit both officers, one of them multiple times, Troyer said.
"He knew we were coming and hid himself," Troyer said, and then opened fire.
The deputies returned fire, killing the man, he added.
"A lot of rounds were fired," Troyer said.
"We don’t know the history of the residents of the house," Troyer said, but detectives on the scene expected to determine that by morning.
"Domestic violence calls are dangerous, and you can only go by the best information that is given to you over the phone," Troyer said.
"This is somebody that was lying in wait for our guys" and armed him himself with the intent of shooting them, Troyer said.
"There’s is nothing we are going to be able to do about that when somebody is hiding and arming themselves and we have someone else inviting us into the residence," he said.
"One of them, we’re guessing, is probably the one who called for help."
Troyer said police are not looking for another suspect. "We’re not looking for anybody else. We think we have everybody detained that was a witness or was around when it happened. The suspect is deceased."
"Right now, our main concern is our guys and their families," Troyer added. Both have life-threatening injuries, he added.
UPDATE III: We know that the Sergeant who was taken to Madigan Army Medical Center at Fort Lewis is now in stable condition. He has spoken with investigators, according to a law-enforcement source. The deputy, shot multiple times, is still in critical condition after being flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
The suspect, who was killed by officers at the scene, is identified as 35-year-old David E. Crable. Crable had multiple domestic-violence restraining orders, including one in Pierce County Superior Court in July 2007 involving his brother. Crable was suicidal in the spring of 2007, arriving at a hospital saying he wanted to kill himself, Crable's brother said in a court filing.