The man at the center of a Friday carjacking on southbound I-5 in Lacey that delayed all lanes of traffic for hours was shot and killed at the scene, the Thurston County Coroner said.
Coroner Gary Warnock reached out to The Olympian on Sunday because he was puzzled by Seattle-area reports that the man was taken to an area hospital.
“He died at the scene,” he said, adding that the man, thought to be in his 20s or 30s, had no identification on him. The Coroner’s Office is continuing to work to identify the man, he said.
After the shooting, the Washington State Patrol announced that one of their troopers was involved in it, which resulted in the investigation being turned over to the Region 3 Critical Investigation Team, led by the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.
The Olympian has yet to hear from the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office about Friday’s incident.
“The Region 3 Team will not be releasing any other information this evening,” Dusty Breen, field operations chief for the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office, said in an official statement to The Chronicle on Friday. “WSP has made an initial release, but WAC 139-12-030 (2)(d) requires the community members selected by the IIT team to ‘Be provided a copy of all press releases and communication to the media prior to release …’ In complying with that WAC, we will not provide additional details until community members are selected and further releases to the media are approved.”
About 2 p.m. a semi-trailer was carjacked by the man on southbound I-5. How he accomplished this is still not clear, although he managed to drive the truck a short distance before he crashed it. That was followed by a standoff between law enforcement and the suspect, and at some point, there was a shooting.
All lanes of the freeway were closed for hours during the investigation, according to the state Department of Transportation. Northbound lanes reopened about 5 a.m. Saturday, followed by the southbound lanes at 6 a.m.
