NEWCASTLE, Wash., June 23 (UPI) -- A suspect was in custody Sunday after allegedly shooting a Seattle-area deputy sheriff to death who had tried to subdue him with pepper spray.
A veteran King County deputy was shot several times with his own gun late Saturday while wrestling with a naked suspect who had been earlier running through traffic and pounding on cars in Newcastle.
Witnesses said the agitated suspect grabbed the weapon after it fell from the deputy's holster while the deputy was spraying him with pepper spray. The magazine from the semi-automatic handgun popped out when the gun hit the ground.
Witness William Dickerson told The Seattle Times that the suspect "grabbed the firearm and magazine, put them together, turned around and immediately started firing."
The deputy reportedly backed away from both the suspect and a crowd of onlookers that had gathered outside an apartment complex in what appeared to Dickerson to be an attempt to keep the civilians out of the line of fire.
The suspect ran into the complex, but surrendered to deputies about 45 minutes later.
The names of the suspect and the slain deputy were not immediately released.
