Driver threatening passenger with gun leads to officer-involved shooting in Auburn

A shooting involving a police officer broke out in Auburn early Wednesday morning, leaving one man dead.

The shooting happened after an Auburn Police Department (APD) officer attempted to pull a driver over during a traffic stop just before 2 a.m. Wednesday, according to a news release from the Valley Independent Investigative Team.

The officer approached the window, finding the driver had pulled out a gun and held it near a woman riding in the car in a “threatening way,” according to KIRO 7.

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The officer responded by drawing their weapon and firing a single shot inside the vehicle. According to the Valley Independent Investigative Team, the officer provided life-saving measures until medics arrived but the 53-year-old man died.

Both the officer and the passenger were uninjured in the incident. She is currently cooperating with police as detectives investigate the shooting.

The Valley Independent Investigative Team said the officer was placed on administrative leave, per protocol. Detectives with the Valley Independent Investigative Team are actively looking into the incident. The Federal Way Police Department is the lead investigative agency.

“More information will be released as it becomes available throughout the investigation,” the news release stated.

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APD was joined by Federal Way Police and the King County Sheriff’s Office at the crime scene. APD told KIRO 7 that this was the first officer-involved shooting in Auburn since 2019.

Contributing: Julia Dallas, MyNorthwest

Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest and producer of the Seattle Seahawks podcast, The Reset with Gee Scott. You can read his stories here and you can email him here.