Deputy Killed In Raid Officers Return Gunman’s Fire During Search For Marijuana

(From For the Record of Thursday, October 19, 1995): The Associated Press on Oct. 17 erroneously reported that Brian Eggleston, the suspect in the fatal shooting of a Pierce County sheriff’s deputy, had served jail time on charges of second-degree theft, forgery and possession of stolen property. Tacoma police say Eggleston has no criminal record they are aware of, and that the charges reported were filed against a different man with a similar name.

A Pierce County sheriff’s deputy was killed and another man was wounded in a shootout Monday during a drug raid on a house where another deputy once lived, authorities said.

The shootout happened about 8 a.m. as deputies were serving a search warrant for suspected marijuana sales at an east Tacoma house that had been under investigation for about 4-1/2 months, sheriff’s spokesman Curt Benson said.

A six-member team knocked and announced it was police.

Deputy John Bananola, 36, was the first through the door. He was shot several times by a man who came out of a rear bedroom with a 9mm semiautomatic, Benson said.

The wounded officer and two other officers returned fire, striking the suspect several times. Both were rushed to Madigan Army Medical Center, where Bananola died.

The wounded man, Brian Eggleston, 25, was in critical condition.

Another man and a woman in the house were taken to a precinct for questioning and later released. Investigators said they were not involved in the shooting.

The search-warrant team included a uniformed officer and undercover officers who had sheriff’s insignia on their clothing, Benson said.

At a press conference, sheriff’s officials revealed that Eggleston’s brother is also a Pierce County sheriff’s deputy. That deputy, whose name was not released, lived in the house where the shootout occurred when it first came under investigation for drugs. The deputy, who was not told of the ongoing investigation, moved out about 3-1/2 months ago, Benson said.

That deputy, who joined the sheriff’s department about 1-1/2 years ago, was placed on administrative assignment Monday pending completion of the criminal investigation, Benson said.

There was no indication the deputy tipped off his brother about Monday’s raid, he added.

Sheriff John Shields wouldn’t comment on the deputy’s possible involvement in the drug probe. “It’s an ongoing investigation right now,” Shields said.

Bananola was a 10-year veteran of the force. He spent his first four years as a jail guard and once saved the life of an inmate, Benson said.