Deputies named in Walmart shootout
Brother says gunman’s death was ‘basically suicide by cop’
PORT ORCHARD, Wash. – A 10-year veteran of the sheriff’s department shot and killed a man in a Walmart parking lot in a gunfight that also left a young woman dead and two deputies wounded, authorities said Tuesday.
The Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office identified the deputy as 38-year-old Krista Rae McDonald, saying she came to the aid of the two officers after they were shot and unable to return fire in the Sunday incident.
Deputies Andrew Paul Ejde, 48, and John Roy Stacy, 50, were wounded.
Ejde was shot in the left shoulder and right arm and was expected to be released from Tacoma General Hospital within the next two days.
Stacy was wounded in the right shoulder and went home from the hospital Monday.
Ejde and Stacy had responded to a call about a suspicious person at the Walmart store in Port Orchard, about 15 miles west and across Puget Sound from Seattle.
Sheriff’s spokesman Scott Wilson said they approached the man later identified as Anthony Martinez, 31, of Salt Lake City, and were trying to talk to him when he bolted and began firing as they gave chase.
Both officers were hit, and McDonald arrived and shot Martinez.
The as-yet unidentified young woman was shot when she ran to Martinez and later died at the Tacoma hospital.
McDonald has been put on administrative assignment during the investigation, which is standard in such cases.
It’s not clear who shot the woman.
Ballistics tests on the bullets could provide the answer, said Trooper Krista Hedstrom of the Washington State Patrol, which is leading the investigation.
An autopsy found that Martinez died of a single gunshot wound to the chest.
Police in Utah issued an endangered persons advisory last week for a 13-year-old girl believed to be traveling with Martinez.
The girl, who fled from a South Salt Lake foster home a week ago, also had run away last fall and was found in Sacramento with him on Oct. 5, officials said.
In November, Martinez pleaded not guilty to a first-degree felony charge of child kidnapping in 2nd District Court in Farmington, Utah.
He posted bail and was released from custody, and had been scheduled to appear in court today.
Hedstrom said investigators think Martinez may have known someone in the Port Orchard area but haven’t been able to determine why he fled and fired at the officers.
His brother, Barrett Martinez, told the Salt Lake Tribune that Anthony Martinez didn’t want to go back to jail.
“I know he was afraid and didn’t want to go back to prison. It was basically suicide by cop,” said Barrett Martinez, who told the Tribune he had spoken with his brother about two weeks ago.
The Tribune said Anthony Martinez’s criminal record includes a felony conviction for drug possession and misdemeanor convictions for aggravated assault, theft and criminal trespass.
Barrett Martinez told the newspaper his brother had been dating the 13-year-old’s mother but didn’t know she was married. That led to a confrontation with the woman’s husband.
Anthony Martinez broke off the relationship but was worried about the girl, who had made suicide threats, his brother said.
“He felt that no one would listen to him, that he was being characterized as a pedophile,” Martinez said.
“She said if he didn’t help her, she’d kill herself.”