BURIEN, Wash. — Burien police officers shot a man who they say ran into traffic and said he had a firearm on Tuesday morning, the Burien Police Department (BPD) confirmed in a social media post.
At 10:22 a.m., officers were dispatched to South 160th Street and First Avenue South for a report of a man running into traffic.
The responding officers encountered a man in traffic who said he had a firearm, according to BPD. Police have not told KING 5 if a gun was recovered by investigators at the scene.
Police said non-lethal tactics were attempted to get the man out of traffic but were unsuccessful. Shots were fired and the man was transported to the hospital. No immediate information was available on the condition of the man. Police and investigators have not yet shared if more than one officer fired their guns.
The shooting happened at the intersection of SW 152nd Street and First Avenue South, just blocks from where they were dispatched to.
Itsi Gomez who works at Globo Azul Events, which is near where the shooting happened, saw the moments leading up to the shooting.
“He didn’t even look back, he was kind of limping a little bit, they tased him, but I don’t know if it got him or not,” said Gomez, reflecting on what she saw in the minutes before the shooting happened.
Gomez shared cellphone video with KING 5 that her father took of those moments. The video shows a man walking on the sidewalk with police vehicles following him and asking him to stop walking. The man does not stop walking. The video shows police officers getting out of their vehicles and following the man up the street as he continues to walk on the sidewalk. The video ends before the shooting happened. Itsi said the man and officers were out of sight of her when the shooting happened, but she did hear three shots fired.
Gomez said from what she saw, she thought the situation could have ended without shots fired. But like others in Burien, she will wait to see what the investigation reveals.
“He was going so slow, like he was kind of limping, he was chill, like they could have just tackled him or something, I don’t know, less deadly," said Gomez.
No officers were injured and the Valley Investigative Team was on scene.