Ex-girlfriend of gunman in trooper’s death arrested

Police have arrested a woman in the case of shooting death of a Washington State Patrol Trooper Thursday morning.

Kitsap County Sheriff Steve Boyer said 32-year-old Jessi Leigh Foster from South Kitsap County was booked for rendering criminal assistance in the first degree related to the shooting of Trooper Tony Radulescu.

“She was actively trying to find a way for him (the gunman) to get out of the area,” said. Sgt. Ken Dickinson.

Foster is being held on $500,000 bail. A judge found probable cause to hold her in an arraignment on Friday.

Boyer said in a news conference on Friday, Foster was the former girlfriend of 28-year-old Joshua Jearl Blake, the suspected murderer of Trooper Radulescu.

“We are confident that he was responsible for the tragic shooting of Trooper Tony,” said Boyer.

Blake was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head on Thursday. He killed himself as a tactical team closed in on the Port Orchard home where he was hiding, authorities said. Foster was still in the home when Blake shot himself.

Dickinson said Blake called Foster and told her he did something bad and needed to flee.

Blake had served time for drugs, assaulting his pregnant girlfriend, and kicking out the window of a police car, among other things, court records show. He was the registered owner of a pickup truck that Trooper Radulescu pulled over just before he was shot to death.

Investigators tracked Blake to a home on a dirt road near Port Orchard. As SWAT team officers approached, they heard a single gunshot. Blake was taken to Tacoma General Hospital, where he died later in the day.

A weapon was recovered near the home on Scofield Road, but the sheriff has not confirmed whether it was the same gun used to kill Trooper Radulescu.

Radulescu, 44, had stopped the pickup around 1 a.m. Thursday on Highway 16 near Gorst and radioed the location and license plate number.

When Radulescu didn’t respond to status checks, a Kitsap County sheriff’s deputy went to the scene and found him wounded. Radulescu was taken to St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma where he was declared dead.

Radulescu was a military veteran with a son in the area who is a soldier, Patrol Chief John Batiste said at a news conference at St. Joseph Medical Center. He was well-known and popular in the community.

The sheriff’s office says no other arrests are pending at this time.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.