When seconds count, the police are only minutes away...
Sometimes they can't even save themselves, but 30 minutes away is still soon enough to kill a bad guy.
U.S. Forest Service officer, suspect shot and killed
A U.S. Forest Service officer was shot and killed Saturday on a remote road near Sequim. The suspect was later killed in a standoff with sheriff's deputies, and investigators found a third body that appeared related to the other killings.
By Nick Perry
Seattle Times staff reporter
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U.S. Forest Service officer Kristine Fairbanks is shown with her enforcement dog, Radar, in this file photo taken on Thursday, Sept. 13, 2007, in Port Angeles, Wash.
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KEITH THORPE / THE PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
U.S. Forest Service officer Kristine Fairbanks is shown with her enforcement dog, Radar, in this file photo taken on Thursday, Sept. 13, 2007, in Port Angeles, Wash.
Clallam County Sheriff's Deputy Ken Oien stands guard at a crossroads seven miles from the site where U.S. Forest Service officer Kristine Fairbanks was shot and killed Saturday, Sept. 20, 2008, near Sequim, Wash. Law enforcement officers across Clallam and Jefferson counties set up checkpoints on roads leading out of Olympic National Forest, in the hunt for the shooter.
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KEITH THORPE / THE PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
Clallam County Sheriff's Deputy Ken Oien stands guard at a crossroads seven miles from the site where U.S. Forest Service officer Kristine Fairbanks was shot and killed Saturday, Sept. 20, 2008, near Sequim, Wash. Law enforcement officers across Clallam and Jefferson counties set up checkpoints on roads leading out of Olympic National Forest, in the hunt for the shooter.
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A U.S. Forest Service officer was shot and killed shortly after 2:40 p.m. Saturday on a remote road near Sequim, according to the State Patrol, and hours later the suspect in the killing was shot and killed following a standoff with sheriff's deputies.
And late last night, authorities were investigating a third killing that appeared related.
The Forest Service officer was identified Saturday evening as Kristine Fairbanks, a K-9 handler who had spent more than 15 years with the service.
Fairbanks radioed in a call at 2:42 p.m. to the patrol's dispatch about a dark-colored Dodge van without license plates on Forest Service Road 2880, just past the Dungeness Forks campground off Palo Alto Road, according to Washington State Patrol Trooper Krista Hedstrom.
Fairbanks had also sought information about 36-year-old Shawn Roe, whom authorities later identified as a suspect.
When dispatch operators returned the call about 10 minutes later, there was no response, the State Patrol said. At that point, troopers and Clallam County sheriff's deputies rushed to the scene, arriving about 3:10 p.m. They found Fairbanks' body but no sign of Roe or the van.
Fairbanks' dog was still in her vehicle. The 51-year-old is survived by a husband, who is an officer with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, and a 15-year-old daughter.
At about 9:30 p.m., after authorities had handed out fliers in the area identifying Roe as a suspect, he was spotted by a security officer entering a gas station, the Longhouse Market & Deli, about 3 miles south of Sequim along Highway 101. The security officer called authorities. Two sheriff's deputies responded, Hedstrom said.
The deputies confronted Roe outside the deli and told him to raise his hands, but he refused, according to Hedstrom. Roe took a gun out and fired a couple of shots at the deputies, who returned fire, Hedstrom said. Roe was shot and killed, but neither deputy was injured. Deputies found at least one more gun on Roe.
Roe was a convicted felon with "an active criminal history" and was supposed to be under state Corrections Department supervision but details were not immediately available and he apparently was not being sought on any warrant, Hedstrom said.
Hedstrom said late Saturday that many questions remain. The case is being investigated by the FBI, she said, given that a federal officer was involved.
Late last night, KING-5 reported that a white vehicle Roe had driven to the gas station was stolen, and that when investigators had traced the vehicle back to the owner in the Sequim area, they had discovered a third crime scene and a third body. The third shooting victim was described only as a man in his 60s.
Nick Perry: 206-515-5639 or nperry@seattletimes.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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