Seconds after a Pierce County sheriff’s SWAT team arrived at a Spanaway mobile home park last week to arrest a man wanted on a warrant for felony assault, the man opened fire on deputies from inside a vehicle parked in the yard, according to investigators.
Two SWAT team members were struck by gunfire after exiting their vehicle and four deputies returned fire, killing 40-year-old Jeremy Dayton, says a Thursday news release from the Pierce County Force Investigation Team.
A day after the March 15 shootings in the 19000 block of Pacific Avenue, sheriff’s Deputy Dominique “Dom” Calata, 35, died from his injuries at St. Joseph Hospital in Tacoma. A celebration of life will be held to memorialize Calata from 1 to 3 p.m. Friday at the Church for All Nations, 111 112th St. E., Tacoma. The service is open to the public.
Sgt. Rich Scaniffe, 45, was also wounded. He was released from the hospital March 18.
Members of the South Sound Gang Task Force located a felony assault suspect on March 15 and requested the SWAT team’s assistance due to the man’s prior criminal convictions, the release says.
The SWAT team members arrived just before noon and were hit by gunfire “within seconds” of getting out of their vehicle, the release says. Other members initiated a rescue of the injured deputies, it says.
Deputies also removed the suspect from his vehicle and provided medical aid, but he died at the scene.
The shooting is being investigated by the Pierce County Force Investigation Team, composed of investigators from the Sheriff’s Department; the Washington State Patrol; and the Bonney Lake, Buckley, Gig Harbor, Lakewood, Sumner, Dupont, Tacoma, Fife, Milton and Puyallup police departments. Tacoma police have been assigned to lead the investigation, which includes members of the Sheriff’s Department.
Pierce County Superior Court records show Dayton has a lengthy criminal history that includes two previous convictions for second-degree assault, one in 2000 and the second in 2017, which are both strike offenses.
In the 2017 case, he was sentenced to just over five years in prison for assaulting his estranged wife, fracturing her jaw and knocking out a couple of teeth, according to court records.
In March 2021, Dayton was charged with second-degree assault, accused of beating a man in his 60s, and if convicted faced a life sentence as a persistent offender under the state’s three-strikes law, the records show.
Dayton, who posted $200,000 bail, was supposed to stand trial in that case on March 7 but didn’t show up, court records say. He was charged with bail jumping, and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest.
It was that warrant SWAT officers were presumably serving when Dayton fired on deputies.
