BELLINGHAM, Wash. (AP) — A man who hit a Whatcom County sheriff’s deputy in the head with what the sheriff described as a hammer and then was fatally shot reportedly had mental health issues.
Sheriff Bill Elfo says he later visited the deputy in a hospital and found him alert and talking. The deputy was not immediately identified.
The Bellingham Herald identified the man fatally shot Monday as 30-year-old Alejandro P. Martinez.
Elfo says another deputy and a U.S. Border Patrol officer fired at Martinez after he struck the deputy. Officers had responded to a mobile home north of Lynden on Monday morning on a report of a man with mental health issues damaging the home.
The sheriff says an attempt to use a Taser to subdue Martinez failed. The man’s brother Jorge Martinez tells the Herald his brother was seriously injured years ago by a blow to the head.
