MARYSVILLE — Shots were fired into police stations and patrol cars in two towns before a suspect was arrested in a shooting with officers in a third city in an hour-long spree Wednesday night about 30 miles northeast of Seattle.
Police couldn’t say Thursday morning whether the suspect had a grudge or what may have motivated the gunfire. They were thankful no one was killed.
A Marysville police sergeant was wounded — either by a bullet or debris — as the suspect was arrested, Snohomish County sheriff’s spokeswoman Shari Ireton said. The 19-year veteran was treated at a hospital in Everett and released.
The suspect is a 43-year-old Granite Falls man who remained in a hospital Thursday with non-life-threatening injuries, the sheriff’s office said.
Bullets hit the Granite Falls police station and a patrol car about 9:15 p.m. Wednesday, the sheriff’s office said. Several rounds went into the building. The car had the windows shot out.
A half-hour later, shots were fired at the Lake Stevens Police Department. A patrol car and animal-control vehicle, as well as the building and reader board outside, were hit, the sheriff’s office said.
No one was hurt at either station.
Witnesses had reported a suspicious white pickup truck that officers spotted about 10:10 p.m. in Marysville. The suspect stopped or slowed and fired twice before finally stopping and firing more shots.
He finally obeyed a command to get out of the vehicle. Officers found several guns in and near the truck, the sheriff’s office said.
The gunfire alarmed Marysville residents.
Mackenzie Harris, 17, of Marysville, told KOMO-TV that she and a friend saw officers pull over a pickup truck. The truck driver then pulled out a gun and started shooting.
“We heard gunshots, so we ran inside,” she said. “While we were running up to my room, we heard, like, two dozen more shots being fired. We walked back downstairs and heard cops screaming and a bunch of yelling.”
A sheriff’s sergeant who had been responding to the shootings hit a guard rail on Interstate 5, the sheriff’s office said. He may have suffered a medical episode and was taken to a hospital with unknown injuries.
