Kidnap suspect shot girl, report shows

PORT ORCHARD, Wash. – A 13-year-old Utah girl who died during a shootout between sheriff’s deputies and a man outside a Washington state Walmart store was killed when the wounded man put two bullets in her chest after she went to check on him, authorities said Friday.

The Washington State Patrol’s ballistics report clarifies what happened at the chaotic scene in Port Orchard on Jan. 23.

Following the shootout, in which two Kitsap County sheriff’s deputies were wounded, officials initially reported that a third deputy had killed 31-year-old Anthony Allen Martinez, of Salt Lake City, who was suspected of kidnapping Astrid Valdivia, of Clearfield, Utah. It had been unclear who killed Valdivia.

Kitsap County Prosecutor Russ Hauge told the Associated Press on Friday that he received the report this week. The findings, first reported by the Salt Lake Tribune, were also confirmed by patrol spokesman Robert Calkins.

“We’ve got it all laid out ballistically, so we know that’s what happened,” Calkins said.

The ballistics report itself wasn’t immediately released under a public disclosure request Friday, but Calkins and Hauge said it shows that the third deputy, Krista Rae McDonald, shot Martinez above his left knee. When the girl tried to check on him, he shot her before shooting himself in the heart.

“The fatal shots were all fired at very close range, within 3 feet,” said Hauge, who has also reviewed choppy surveillance video of the shootings. “That wasn’t clear until now. Nobody knew for sure until the ballistics report because it happened so quickly and there was so much going on.”

The shootout began when two deputies approached Martinez in the parking lot to ask him for identification after receiving a suspicious person report. Martinez bolted and started firing, hitting Deputy John Roy Stacy in the right shoulder and Deputy Andrew Ejde in the left shoulder and right arm. McDonald, acting as backup, fired about a half-dozen shots at Martinez.

Last fall, Valdivia fled from a South Salt Lake foster home and was later found in California with Martinez, who was once a friend of her mother; Martinez had been charged with kidnapping and was out on bail at the time of the shooting.

Valdivia’s family has said they believe she fled the home again on Jan. 18 with Martinez and that Martinez should not have been with her. The exact nature of their relationship is unclear.

Martinez’s family has said he was simply trying to help the girl because of her difficult home life.