Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office Deputies and Bremerton Police officers flooded Navy Yard City after approximately five shots were fired at around 9:43 a.m. Monday morning.
A radio report of “shots fired” in the 3700 block of F Street brought dozens of deputies and officers to the scene.
After a brief chase, a 29-year-old suspect was taken into custody, with only minor injuries.
Deputy Scott Wilson, a sheriff’s office spokesman, said that a deputy sergeant and the suspect exchanged an unknown number of shots, but neither was hit. Wilson said investigators are still determining whether the suspect or the deputy was the first to fire.
Wilson said deputies were following up on a series of Navy Yard City burglaries in recent days, when the sergeant spotted a man who wasn’t doing anything particularly suspicious, but nonetheless drew the deputy’s attention. The sergeant stopped to initiate “a social contact” to see if the man was alright.
“(The suspect) was evasive,” Wilson said. “It was obvious that (the suspect) didn’t want to be contacted by law enforcement and the sergeant didn’t press it. The man entered onto private property and went up on porch and then came back off the porch. He pulled a handgun that was on his person and gunshots were exchanged. We don’t know yet who fired first or how many shots were exchanged, but nobody was hit by gunfire. The suspect initially feigned surrender and was going to comply with verbal instructions, but took off.”
The suspect was arrested some five minutes later about two blocks south of the shooting in the 900 block of Charlotte Avenue, between D and E streets. Wilson said the man had an abrasion on his forehead and was treated by medics from South Kitsap Fire and Rescue before being transported to the Kitsap County Jail. He’s being held under suspicion of assault in the first degree and bail was set at $1 million.
The West Hills STEM Academy, about two blocks north of where the shooting took place, was placed on lockdown for about 15 minutes while the incident unfolded.
Wilson said that the Washington State Patrol is helping to investigate the shooting and the deputy who was involved has been placed on administrative assignment pending the outcome of that investigation.
