OLYMPIA, Wash. — A man was shot and killed by an Olympia Police Department (OPD) officer Monday morning.
According to OPD spokesperson Paul Lower, officers were called to the Starbucks near Sleater Kinney Road Southeast and Martin Way East around 10:30 a.m. for a “disorderly conduct” call. Lower said the man was allegedly damaging the restroom inside the Starbucks.
When officers arrived, the man went into the Starbucks parking lot. As officers were attempting to arrest the man, police said the man pulled out a knife and “attacked officers.”
The OPD said one officer shot the man.
The man was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, where he later died.
The OPD tweeted officers were treated at the scene for injuries.
Drivers in the area should expect traffic congestion and delays during the investigation.
The Capital Metro Independent Investigations Team responded to the scene and conducted an independent investigation.
What led up to the shooting
Laura Wohl, public information officer for Tumwater police, is acting as the investigation team's spokesperson.
She said the 37-year-old man, who has not been identified, was drinking beer in the Starbucks and refused to leave.
Earlier in the morning, Wohl said Olympia police received a call about the same man from the ampm convenience store next door to the Starbucks. A store employee said the man tried stealing alcohol.
Wohl said after officers arrived at the Starbucks the man left the location and walked out into traffic on Martin Way.
"Eventually they were able to get him to move out of that busy roadway and then they were engaging him behind the Starbucks. At that point he pulled a knife and the officers did shoot," said Wohl.
Wohl would not elaborate on what else, if anything, had led up to the shooting.
But she said it appeared one of the three officers responding to the calls used their weapon.
Mark Robinson, who was working at Tractor Supply Company across the parking lot from the Starbucks said he saw the man get shot.
"I'm still shaking," Robinson said more than two hours after the shooting.
Robinson said he saw the man charge at police, appearing to hold a knife in his raised hand. Robinson said he was too far away to see if it was a knife, but he said he heard officers repeatedly tell the man to drop a knife.
Robinson said the officers tried tasing the man before firing at him.
Wohl would not confirm if tasers had been used, but two discharged tasers were found at the scene of the shooting.
Investigators marked a pocketknife at the location as evidence, but Wohl would not say who the knife belonged to.
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