MASON COUNTY, Wash. — A man who carjacked a semi-truck and then rolled it in the median of Interstate 5 charged at officers with a knife before being shot and killed by police, the Mason County Sheriff's Office said in a press release on Tuesday.
Washington State Patrol first received calls of a man running into traffic on I-5 on Friday afternoon. After trying to open several car doors, investigators said the man gained access to a semi-truck and assaulted the driver.
Shortly after getting behind the wheel, the man hit several other vehicles before flipping the semi-truck into the median near Olympia. WSP closed both sides of I-5 while it tried to get the man out of the rolled truck.
WSP was unable to break through the windshield of the semi-truck with less lethal rounds and ended up using a ram at the end of a SWAT vehicle to remove it.
The man still refused to get out of the vehicle, and pepper ball rounds and flash bangs were deployed.
Upon finally getting out of the semi-truck, police said the man was armed with a knife and charged at an officer. The man was shot and died at the scene.
After the truck rolled over just before 2 p.m., I-5 did not fully reopen on both sides until after 6 a.m. Saturday morning.
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