Witness speaks out on WA deputies shooting her ex-boyfriend

Ex-girlfriend of man suing deputies speaks out

A federal lawsuit has been filed against two Snohomish County Sheriff's Office deputies for a shooting that killed a dog and injured a man in Sultan. The man's ex-girlfriend, who was there at the time of the shooting, speaks out.

SULTAN, Wash. - A woman who was inches away from her boyfriend as he was shot by a Snohomish County Sheriff's deputy and sergeant is now sharing her side of the story.

A lawsuit was filed in May against the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office (SCSO) deputy and sergeant who shot Marcus Whybark in July 2023.

Loretta Nichols, who says she was Whybark's girlfriend at the time of the shooting, was hiding in her truck when Whybark jumped onto her truck bed and was shot multiple times.

"I've never seen anybody fly like that," said Nichols. "I had to slam my window because his face would have gone into the back of my truck, and he still had the knife in his hand."

Nichols says Whybark dropped his knife on her truck, just seconds before guns were fired on him.

"I have a hard time with that," said Nichols. "A part of me wants to think they were just doing their job, and they didn’t know what was going on."

Despite being in the line of fire, Nichols was not physically hurt, but she says she has been struggling from the trauma of that day.

She kept quiet about her own suffering and says she even helped nurse Whybark during his recovery.

"Every time I try to bring it up, people say, well you’re not the one that got hurt," said Nichols. "I just feel like a lost witness in all of this."

Nichols says she was interviewed on the day of the shooting but no one has reached out to her since then and no one has offered to help her get her truck back, which has been taken as part of the investigation.

"I think people need to be more compassionate over everybody’s situation," said Nichols "It's a situation you don’t know what you’re going to do until you’re in it."

Nichols says she’s still unsure when or if she’ll ever get her truck back.

We reached out to the Snohomish SMART team multiple times and are waiting to hear back from them.

The attorney representing Marcus Whyback says he and his client did not want to comment right now.