Washington State Patrol has concluded its investigation into the Jan. 23 shooting incident at the Port Orchard Walmart that left two suspects dead and a pair of Kitsap County deputies wounded.
When the details will be released to the public is another question.
“The report is finished and we had actually planned to hold a press conference to release its findings (on March 15),” Washington State Patrol Spokeswoman Trooper Krista Hedstrom said. “But officials from the various agencies involved decided against doing that and I don’t know when they’ll go public with it now.”
The final report will be turned over to the Kitsap County Prosecutor’s Office, Hedstrom said, and it will decide when and how to disseminate it.
The State Patrol was asked to handle the investigation in order to avoid a conflict of interestwith the Kitsap Sheriff’s Office probing a shooting involving its own deputies.
Hedstrom said media from all over the country had been calling for weeks to check on the status of the report.
“It was a national story,” she said. “And people want to know exactly what happened.”
Officially, the two deceased were identified as 31-year-old Anthony A. Martinez and 13-year-old runaway Astrid Valdivia, both from Salt Lake City, Utah.
The shooting occurred around 3:45 p.m. after deputies John Stacy and Andrew Ejde responded to a report of a suspicious individual in the Walmart.
One report said bystanders witnessed Martinez brandishing a weapon inside the store.
A news release from the Washington State Patrol and Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office officials said after the incident the deputies were trying to subdue Martinez when he suddenly bolted across the parking lot area outside of the southwest main entrance to the store.
When the deputies pursued the suspect, he wheeled and fired with a semi-automatic handgun, the release said.
Stacy and Ejde were both struck and unable to return fire.
Their wounds were not life-threatening and both were treated and released from Tacoma General Hospital within a few days.
As the deputies were being wounded, a third deputy — Krista McDonald — arrived in her cruiser and approached from behind the store and rounded the southeast corner of the building to confront the gunman who had fired at the deputies, the Sheriff’s Office said.
She fired at Martinez, who fell and was later declared dead, police said.
Based on witness statements and other evidence, investigators believe Valdivia ran from the couple’s blue minivan, which was parked in the store’s parking lot, and toward Martinez when the shooting started.
She was struck by a bullet during the exchange and was later declared dead at Tacoma General Hospital, but it wasn’t immediately clear from whose weapon the fatal shot was fired.
That and other answers will be in the report once it’s released.
“Ordinarily we’d be the one to release the information,” Hedstrom said, “but in this case we’ll give to the Prosecutor’s Office and it will belong to them. What they do with it is their business.”
“I have no idea when we’ll release the report,” said Kitsap County Deputy Prosecutor Tim Drury.
“Obviously, that’s (Prosector Russ) Hauge’s call to make. But I can’t imagine why it would take more than a day or so once we have the report to let everyone know what’s in it.”
