Walmart shooter identified
Man wanted in Utah for kidnapping
PORT ORCHARD, Wash. – The man killed in a shootout with Kitsap County sheriff’s deputies at a Walmart store was wanted in connection with the kidnapping of a 13-year-old girl from Salt Lake City, Utah, authorities said Monday.
The Washington State Patrol said Anthony A. Martinez, 31, was the man killed during a shootout Sunday that left two sheriff’s deputies wounded. Martinez was earlier believed to be with a 13-year-old girl who was reported missing from a Utah foster home, according to the Deseret News in Utah.
Authorities were still trying Monday to identify the teenage girl who was fatally shot along with Martinez outside the Port Orchard store. The State Patrol said the girl did not carry identification.
Trooper Krista Hedstrom, State Patrol spokeswoman, said investigators were in contact with authorities in Salt Lake City to find out more about Martinez and the girl. She could not confirm the girl who was killed with Martinez was the foster home runaway, but said “there is a possibility.”
Martinez wounded two sheriff’s deputies before he was killed by a third deputy, according to the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office.
Kitsap County sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Scott Wilson said one of the two wounded deputies was released from Tacoma General Hospital on Monday. The other injured deputy remained at Tacoma General and could be released as early as today, Wilson said.
The name of the teenage female who was killed along with Martinez may be released once her autopsy is completed, according to the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office, which is handling the autopsy because she died at a Tacoma hospital. Her name will be released once her family is notified, the medical examiner’s office said.
According to the Deseret News, the 13-year-old girl believed to be with Martinez fled her foster home last Tuesday.
The girl had earlier fled with Martinez in September and was later found in Sacramento, Calif. Martinez tried to flee but was arrested, the Deseret News reported. In November, he pleaded not guilty to a first-degree felony charge of child kidnapping. He posted $25,000 bail and was released, according to the newspaper.
Martinez was issued a no-contact order to stay away from the girl, the Deseret News said.
The Salt Lake Tribune says Martinez’s criminal history includes convictions for felony drug charges and misdemeanor aggravated assault.