FIFE, Wash. -- An undercover sheriff's deputy on Tuesday fatally shot a man outside a motel in Fife after the man allegedly drove into another deputy, the Pierce County Sheriff's Department said.
The incident happened when a special investigations unit went to the Motel 6 on 20th Street E. to look for a 36-year-old felon wanted for multiple burglaries.
Pierce County sheriff's Det. Ed Troyer says deputies located the man in a vehicle and blocked him in an unmarked patrol car. Troyer says deputies took a woman in the car into custody on an arrest warrant but that the man then drove over a curb and backed into a patrol car.
Troyer says the man did it again, hitting and knocking down a deputy. Troyer says then the other deputy fired and the man died at the scene.
The deputy who was hit suffered minor injuries.
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Deputies shoot, kill man at Fife motel
Deputies shoot, kill man at Fife motel
“We’re lucky that our deputy wasn’t hurt worse," said Troyer. "Probability is the deputy that fired the round possibly could have saved our deputy’s life because the suspect driving the car was not going to be cooperative. He hasn’t been in the past. He’s a known felon who backed over our deputy once and we didn’t want that to happen a second time.”