There is no estimated time frame for reopening Interstate 5 near Martin Way in Lacey as what began as a standoff with a pedestrian who hijacked and rolled over a semi-truck turned into an officer-involved shooting Friday evening.
Southbound lanes closed when the hijacking occurred at 2 p.m. on Friday and troopers made the decision to close the northbound lanes about an hour later as they were attempting to negotiate with the subject, who was reportedly refusing to leave the cab of the semi-truck.
WSP was still “continuing to negotiate with the individual” as of 3:35 p.m.,” according to a Twitter post by Trooper Robert Reyer.
The Washington State Patrol (WSP) issued a news release at approximately 6:15 p.m. on Friday stating it was involved in a shooting just north of Martin Way Friday afternoon.
WSP directed all inquiries into the shooting to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office, which is acting as the lead investigating agency in the Region 3 Critical Response Team (IIT) investigation.
“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 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.”
Both directions of I-5 will remain closed until the investigation team clears the scene, according to WSP.
As of Friday evening, southbound traffic on I-5 was backed up to Tacoma and northbound traffic was backed up to state Route 101 due to the closure.
Southbound traffic is being detoured onto Marvin Road and northbound traffic is being detoured to Martin Way.
Traffic updates will be posted to Reyer’s Twitter account @wspd1pio.
