Seattle cop shoots man while serving search warrant
Associated Press
PUYALLUP – A Seattle police officer shot a man in Puyallup while serving a search warrant amid a probe into organized crime and drug trafficking, officials said.
FBI spokesperson Steve Berndt said the man was shot Wednesday morning and was expected to survive, the Seattle Times reported.
Interim Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz said at a news conference later Wednesday that the man was shot in the pelvis by an officer working with a federal task force that served 19 search and arrest warrants, confiscating nearly 50 firearms and drugs. Diaz said two firearms were “found in the vicinity” of where the man fell outside a house in Puyallup.
According to a 173-page search warrant unsealed Wednesday in U.S. District Court, the home’s occupant was under surveillance for being a “multi-ounce cocaine redistributor” working with other targets of the investigation, which employed judge-authorized telephone taps, surveillance and undercover purchases. The warrant said agents believed cocaine was kept at the residence.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office announced that 12 individuals had been indicted in connection with the investigation, which has been ongoing for months and involved another series of searches and arrests that occurred in April, when 24 other suspects were arrested.
The man shot was taken to a hospital for treatment. His name and the officer’s name haven’t been released.
Representatives from Seattle’s Office of Police Accountability, Office of Inspector General and the city’s police Force Investigation Team responded to the scene, police said.
The officer will be placed on paid administrative leave, which is standard policy after an officer shoots someone. Diaz said the officer’s body camera footage would be made public in the next few days.
A neighbor at the Puyallup shooting scene, who asked not to be identified out of fear for his safety, said he heard someone yelling “we have a search warrant” at about 3:30 a.m. He didn’t hear any gunshots, but saw a person being loaded into an ambulance before officers told him to go back inside. He said a man, woman and two children lived in the duplex unit where the shooting occurred.