An unidentified man kept the police and residents of Bainbridge Islands awake and on the edge late on Saturday night and early on Sunday, as he kept firing shots from his rifle which he had taken aboard a boat in Eagle Harbor. Due to the shooting, ferry services had to be canceled temporarily and people remained in safe places. After hours of negotiations and other methods to subdue the perpetrator, police were forced to shoot and kill the man.
Police shoot and kill unknown gunman
The authorities first got reports of gunfire at the harbor at around 8.30 p.m.
on Saturday. When the first responders got to the scene they noticed a man armed with a rifle firing at the shore and later at the officers. Police members started evacuating the public to avoid any harm but did not fire back at the suspect, even though one of the officers was armed with a rifle.
At around 10.20 p.m. the fire department at Bainbridge Islands tweeted that all those people who resided along the shore should avoid going near the windows as the altercation was still underway. Teams from the FBI, the Coast Guard, Kitsap Regional SWAT, along with local law enforcement all took part in the operation to apprehend the gunman. A King County sheriff's Guardian One helicopter was also used to monitor the gunman's movements.
The law enforcement agencies tried to end the conflict peacefully for hours but, after having failed to do so, the Swat teams boarded boats belonging to the local police and approached the boat of the gunman. Officers described the man as a 30-year-old white guy who had stripped off all his clothes. As the police team approached, the suspect pointed the rifle at the team, which in turn prompted the SWAT team to open fire and kill him.
Eyewitness accounts
Witnesses claimed that the man had been wearing clothes at first but stripped naked at one point. He also kept going in and coming out of the boat's hold. After firing shots he was shouting some obscenities at the officers but his words could not be made out. It remains unknown what drove the man to perform such an action and police spokespersons said that the Washington State Patrol and Kitsap County Incident Response Team would conduct a thorough investigation into the matter.
The long episode that stretched around 4-hours, saw the authorities trying non-lethal means to subdue and arrest the victim, such as flashbangs and a gaseous substance, according to eyewitnesses. However, the gunman forced the SWAT team's hands after he aimed the rifle at them, leaving them no choice but to open fire and put him down.
