Officers cleared in fatal WA tire store shooting

PORT ORCHARD, Wash. (AP) — The Kitsap County prosecutor has ruled that Poulsbo (PAULS-bow) police acted responsibly last February when they fatally shot an agitated, angry man who had fired a gun in a tire store and then began moving toward some bystanders.

Prosecutor Russ Hauge said Thursday that the three officers who responded Feb. 8 “had every reason to believe” that 24-year-old Joseph Henninger posed a threat of harm or death to others. Hauge says they shot him to stop that threat.

The Kitsap Sun reports (http://is.gd/5sw7Nr ) Hauge’s ruling officially clears Sgt. Robert Wright and Officers Ricki Sabado and John Halsted.

Hauge says they knew when they arrived at a Les Schwab store that they faced a man who had fired a gun.

The prosecutor says Henninger was in “obvious psychological distress” and had threatened to kill store employees and himself. He fired two rounds in the store but no one was hit. Customers and employees fled the building.

Hauge says witnesses heard the officers order Henninger to drop his weapon.

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Information from: Kitsap Sun, http://www.kitsapsun.com/