Two Puyallup officers shot, injured after standoff with armed suspect

Residents at two Puyallup apartment complexes were ordered to shelter in place for hours Tuesday, while Puyallup police tried to talk an armed man out of one of the units.

It all started as a domestic violence incident at 1:17 p.m. at the River Trail Apartments in the 1700 block of East Main Street in Puyallup. A 911 caller reported their ex-boyfriend had violated a court order and showed up at the apartment and was hiding in the closet.

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The woman was able to leave her apartment and was uninjured.

Pierce County Sheriff’s Sgt. Darren Moss Jr. says officers from at least half-a-dozen departments responded to the call.

“The small cities in our county have their own Crisis Response Teams, which has a negotiator element and a SWAT element,” explained Sgt. Moss. “Police had their SWAT unit in the front of the apartment complex, and Pierce County Sheriff’s Department had our SWAT armored vehicle behind the apartment.”  

Sgt. Moss said officers evacuated people from nearby apartment units and ordered others to shelter in place.  “The suspect had fired multiple rounds outside of his apartment in all directions, and we wanted to make sure other people would be safe.”

Two Puyallup police officers were shot and wounded during the stand-off.

“Both officers were fine — the first officer called out on the radio several minutes after the shooting occurred.  He called out on the radio to say he was fine. He walked to an ambulance and was taken to a hospital as a precautionary measure.  It was almost 5 p.m. when the second officer notified his commander that he had also been struck by gunfire, but he also said he was fine. Both of them walked out on their own – [we’re] very fortunate that was the case with all that gunfire coming out of the apartment”.

After hours of negotiation, Sgt. Moss says the 37-year-old suspect walked out of the apartment building, laid face-down on the ground, and surrendered to police.

He was taken to the hospital to be treated for a hand injury before being booked into the Pierce County Jail.

The Pierce County Force Investigative Team is now in charge of the investigation into the incident.

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