Ought to be hell to pay for this.
Arrest warrant never issued for Olympic Peninsula killer of 2
Story Updated: Sep 21, 2008 at 7:11 PM PDT
By KOMO Staff and Associated
SEQUIM, Wash. - A corrections officer sought an arrest warrant 11 days ago for the man who shot and killed two people Saturday on the Olympic Peninsula, but the court system never issued it, officials said Sunday.
A statement issued Sunday by the state Department of Corrections said the man, Shawn M. Roe, 36, had been on community supervision since Aug. 11 after serving a jail term for malicious mischief.
Shawn M. Roe
But Roe violated the terms of his probation after he failed to report to his community corrections officer as scheduled on Aug. 29, and also by consuming alcohol. On Sept. 9, Roe told the corrections officer by phone he no longer wanted to cooperate, and on Sept. 10, Roe's community corrections officer requested that Mason County Superior Court issue an arrest warrant for Roe.
The warrant still had not been issued at the time of the shootings, and Roe remained at large.
That was Roe's legal status when he was stopped Saturday by U.S. Forest Service officer Kristine Fairbanks, 51, a certified canine officer with 15 years in the forest service, inside the Olympic National Park near Sequim.
Roe shot and killed Fairbanks then went on to kill another victim about three hours later in the course of stealing a pickup truck at a residence in the vicinity.
He later was shot to death by deputies after he pulled out his handgun and fired at them at a convenience store.
The FBI is investigating the shooting of Fairbanks, and the other shootings in the Sequim area are being investigated by the patrol and Clallam County sheriff's deputies, said State Trooper Krista D. Hedstrom.
Roe, whose last known address was in Everett and before that in Shelton, had three handguns and fired at least one shot before he died in the shootout with two deputies at a convenience store, Hedstrom said.
Roe was a convicted felon with "an active criminal history," she added.
The third shooting victim was described only as a man in his 60s.
No one else was known to be hurt in the shootings, Hedstrom said.
"We're just hoping that nobody else shows up" dead or injured, she said.
All the shootings occurred on the northern Olympic Peninsula about 50 miles west of Seattle.
Kristine Fairbanks
Hedstrom said the shootings Saturday began after Fairbanks called the patrol at 2:22 p.m. and said she had stopped Roe in an old Dodge van without license plates near the Dungeness Forks campground in Olympic National Park, roughly half a dozen miles south of Sequim.
When a dispatcher tried to contact Fairbanks with information on Roe, there was no response and troopers and a sheriff's deputy were dispatched. The deputy arrived first, at 3:10 p.m., and found Fairbanks dead. Her police dog was unharmed in her vehicle.
Authorities found the van about 6:30 p.m., abandoned not far away in a densely wooded area, and posters and flyers warning people to be on the lookout for Roe were distributed around the Sequim area.
At 9:30 p.m., Hedstrom said, a security guard at the Longhouse Market and Deli near the Seven Cedars Casino on U.S. Highway 101 east of Sequim alerted sheriff's deputies that a man meeting Roe's description was in the convenience store.
Two deputies arrived and told him to put up his hands as he came out of the store, but he drew at least one handgun and fired at least once before both deputies opened fire, Hedstrom said. Neither deputy was hit. Roe died at the scene.
Officials later said that deputies fired at Roe nine times. One deputy fired five shots and the other fired four shots.
Roe was found to be carrying a 9mm handgun, a .22-caliber handgun and an older six-shooter. A rifle was found in the truck, along with two knives.
Investigators checked the registration of a white pickup he was seen driving when he arrived at the store, went to the house of the registered owner, located between the store and the campground, and found the body of a man who had been shot, Hedstrom said.
Investigators later located a witness who said he saw Roe after he stole the truck, said Clallam County Sheriff Bill Benedict. The witness, who was not aware of the crimes that had been committed, told authorities that Roe was accompanied by a woman. He also had a dog with him.
Roe's mother later told investigators her son had said he was going camping in the Olympic National Park.
Fairbanks leaves behind a husband and a 15-year-old daughter, Forest Service officials said.
"We are all grieving today for the loss of Kristine Fairbanks," said Cal Joyner, acting Pacific Northwest Regional Forester. "Our hearts and prayers go out to her family and friends.
"This terrible tragedy affects not only the close-knit communities of the Forest Service and law enforcement agencies, but all of us in the Northwest who depend on brave people such as Kristine to stand between us and harm. Those who risk their lives for the rest of us deserve a special moment of thanks today."
It was the second deadly shooting spree in less than three weeks in Washington state.
On Sept. 2 six people were shot to death and four were wounded in Skagit County before Isaac Zamora, 28, a drug offender described by his mother as "desperately mentally ill," turned himself in. He has been charged with six counts of murder and four of assault. |
