PORT ORCHARD, Wash.- Sheriff’s officers say a shootout Sunday afternoon at a Walmart in Washington state left two people dead and two sheriff’s deputies wounded.
Kitsap County sheriff’s spokesman Scott Wilson says a man was shot to death by deputies outside the store in Port Orchard Sunday afternoon, while a young woman died after being taken to a Tacoma hospital.
Wilson says officers received a call about a suspicious person at the store. He says deputies tried to talk to the man, who then ran and began shooting. Three deputes, including the two wounded, returned fire.
Witness Victor Meyers told KOMO-TV that the first shot was followed by six more in rapid succession.
“I heard one shot, which I thought was a car backfiring, and then several more reported back, which I knew to be gunfire,” Meyers said.
He said he saw a female deputy running toward a victim on the ground before he and other witnesses were hustled from the scene.
Port Orchard is about 15 miles west of Seattle across Puget Sound.