Bremerton SWAT operation arrests violent assault suspect

Following a multi-hour SWAT operation in Bremerton, police officers arrested a violent assault suspect.

According to a statement from the department, police were first called to E. Broad Street off Wheaton Way after witnesses reported seeing a man violently assaulting a woman at a nearby bus station.

The department said that when they arrived on the scene, officers talked to the victim, who had run to a nearby store to call the police.

• Follow this link to read additional stories from KIRO 7

After police realized the suspect was known to the department, officers went to the suspect’s residence near the scene of the assault; he barricaded himself inside his home and refused to come out.

In the statement, the department also said that the suspect threatened to kill officers when they came to his house.

According to the department, after officers from the Bremerton Police Department spent hours attempting to resolve the situation, a crew from Kitsap County’s SWAT team was brought in along with crisis negotiators and drones.

The department said that despite these efforts, the suspect armed himself with a knife and refused to leave his house even when the officers used pepperballs and other non-lethal ammunition.

When the suspect still would not come out, K9 Nox was deployed. Eventually, he was apprehended and arrested. Before being booked in the Kitsap County jail for assault, police said he was treated by on-scene medics and taken to a nearby hospital for further evaluation.