Yellow Pages
* Will be Updated *
At least six people were killed, including a Skagit County Sheriff’s deputy, and two were wounded Tuesday afternoon, apparently by a man who led law enforcement on a high-speed chase on Interstate 5 from Alger to Mount Vernon.
Among the wounded was a State Patrol trooper who was hit by gunfire in the arm. The suspect who was arrested at the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office is known to local law enforcement as a man who may be “mentally disturbed.”
“This is a sad situation that happened,” said Trooper Keith Leary, a spokesman for the State Patrol.
Leary said that the death in the line of duty of a deputy would be felt nationally by the entire law enforcement community from the federal to local levels.
“My heart goes out to the family of the victim at this point,” Leary said.
Information on victims’ identities wasn’t released Tuesday.
Police were gathering evidence at seven separate crime scenes, and the investigation is so complex that it will take several days to determine exactly what happened and in what sequence, Leary said.
Law enforcement realized something was wrong after a deputy who was sent at 2:19 p.m. to Silver Creek Drive in the Alger area to investigated a report of a “disturbance,” Leary said. The exact nature of the call wasn’t available early this evening. When the deputy failed to respond to a “status check” other officers were sent to the residence, Leary said.
There, deputies discovered the dead body of their fallen comrade and the body of another person, Leary said. Nearby, the deputies also found the bodies of two construction workers who apparently had been working in the area. They found a fifth body a few houses beyond the construction site. Leary said he didn’t know the cause of death of the three people found at the scene with the deceased deputy.
Officials had not released the names of any of the victims by mid-evening.
Around 4:15 p.m., at least one trooper came into contact with the suspect, who was driving a metallic tan GMC pickup in the area of the Alger exit from the interstate near the Alger Shell where a civilian motorcyclist was wounded by gunfire. The condition of that motorcyclist wasn’t released this evening.
On southbound I-5, a civilian motorist was shot and killed and the trooper wounded near the State Department of Transportation Bow Hill rest stop, Leary said. The trooper was being treated for non-life-threatening injuries at United General Hospital in Sedro-Woolley.
The high-speed pursuit, which reached speeds of at least 90 mph, continued south on the Interstate with troopers, deputies and Mount Vernon police in pursuit. The suspect exited the highway at Kincaid Street in downtown Mount Vernon and turned into the northern parking lot of the sheriff’s office where he was arrested without incident, Leary said.
Both lanes of traffic were the southbound side of the interstate was closed for a half hour this evening and then one lane was re-opened.
