SEATTLE — A King County Sheriff's Office (KCSO) detective shot while serving an eviction notice was released from the hospital Friday morning, over a month after the shooting.
Before his release, Detective David Easterly said he wanted to "keep this whole thing positive."
"This kind of tragedy, I can't tell you what kind of benefit I've had from my own personal family getting together," Easterly said.
“Most of the blood that flows through me right now doesn't belong to me,” said Easterly who received a new kidney, multiple blood transfusions and underwent surgeries. A trauma surgeon with Harborview Medical Center said his biggest injury was to his kidneys.
Easterly thanked the team of doctors at Harborview Medical Center and credited the two other detectives who served the eviction warrant with him, Benjamin Wheeler and Benjamin Miller, saying, "Those guys saved my life."
Easterly, Wheeler and Miller were serving an eviction notice in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood at a residence just before 9:30 a.m. on March 20 when the shooting happened, according to a press release from the Independent Force Investigation Team (IFIT). After contacting the 29-year-old resident, Easterly was shot as gunfire was exchanged.
The Gilman Park Apartments resident barricaded themselves inside the residence. The resident was found dead inside.
Easterly was sent to the Intensive Care Unit at Harborview Medical Center.
Meeghan Black, a spokesperson for IFIT, said Easterly was shot in the upper torso. The ballistics vest the deputy was wearing did not protect him from the bullet.
The King County Sheriff's Office is looking for ways to prevent something like this from happening again.
“There is potentially some equipment that we can obtain that would help some of our civil detectives remain safe when they are having to do their duties,” said Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall.
Easterly has been with the sheriff's office for about 25 years.
The two other deputies have been with the sheriff's office for 24 and 26 years respectively.
Black initially said two of the three deputies fired their weapons, but IFIT later said evidence indicated all three "probably returned fire." Further ballistics testing will be done to confirm.
“Pop, pop, pop and then there was a pause and then it was another pop, pop, pop,” said Brian Smith, who is a builder working on a property down the street from the scene of the shooting. “I thought it was from that big job site. We went up on the roof and then all of a sudden cops just started showing up.”
A friend of the resident who was found dead said they "barricaded themselves in their apartment because they owed $13,000 in back rent and had exhausted all legal options." The friend did not want to give KING 5 their name but said they came right away to help with the eviction process. “Despair. I feel a lot of guilt. I feel like I could have done more.”
Black said the eviction process had begun back in January and deputies were attempting to serve the final notification in March.
Detective Easterly is retiring from law enforcement and still needs to recover. Detectives have finished their part of the investigation into the shooting and are now awaiting test results before being sent to the prosecutor's office.