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A 43-year-old man drowned Saturday while evading Renton police, the department said in a post on social media.
The post said officers were investigating the presence of a suspicious vehicle at Gene Coulon Memorial Beach Park on Lake Washington just after noon on Saturday when a man and a woman left the car and entered the water to evade the officers."
Officers were able to pull the woman from the water and detain her but the man drowned, police said.
"This is considered an in-custody death, and the Valley Independent Investigative Team will take over the investigation, per the post.
The Kent Police Department is investigating the death, as part of the Valley Independent Investigative Team that examines police-involved deaths. A Kent police spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.
There have been at least two other significant instances this summer of people fleeing police into the water in the Puget Sound region: In June, two people died and three were injured when they drove a car off the end of the Edmonds ferry dock. Three days later, a man was pulled out of Lake Washington and arrested after he shot at officers and then jumped into the lake in Rainier Beach.
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