Man shot in standoff with Seattle police died by suicide, authorities say

SEATTLE – A man who shot his domestic partner before getting into a gunfight with Seattle police in the Washington Park neighborhood ultimately died by self-inflicted gunshot to the head, authorities said Tuesday.

Daniel Jolliffe, 53, was released from state prison in 2017. A former Army Ranger, according to a 1999 report from the Seattle Times, Jolliffe killed two men in a barroom in Pioneer Square in 1993, according to court records.

Eight years after his release, Jolliffe was standing over a woman police believed to be his domestic partner while she screamed for help, as officers arrived at a residence early on June 20, as seen in their body camera footage. It is unknown what injuries she might have sustained during the domestic-violence-related incident, Seattle Police Department Detective Eric Muñoz said. Police did not say who called 911.

Seconds after police arrived, Jolliffe hurried upstairs, then fired a gunshot from a second-story window, striking the woman in her lower back, Muñoz said. She can be heard screaming, “Oh my God, oh my God. What happened?” in the footage.

That led to Seattle police firing back at Jolliffe multiple times while he was shooting down at them, moving back and forth inside the residential unit upstairs. The woman remained on the ground several paces from the officers during most of the exchange, taking instruction to stay still or crawl her way out of the line of fire.

The woman, who advised officers that Jolliffe had been an Army Ranger, was able to eventually move out of the line of fire and was ultimately taken to a hospital in serious condition.

“Domestic violence incidences are some of the most major instances where you do not know what you’re walking into until you actually get to the situation,” said Tyron Pope, an adjunct associate professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York and former New York Police Department sergeant supervisor, speaking to the danger of domestic violence calls. “It can go from zero to 60 in a flash of an eye.”

Incidents like these are dynamic, and the officers did what they should have without exposing themselves to unnecessary gunfire, Pope said.

Jolliffe eventually barricaded himself in the unit and began throwing furniture around inside, “very upset,” while police tried to negotiate with him, Seattle police Chief Shon Barnes said at the scene later that morning. When police hadn’t heard from Jolliffe in over an hour, they breached the residence to find him dead.

During the gunfight, police shot and hit Jolliffe, but the capacity in which he was injured by officers could not be released while the incident is under investigation, Muñoz said. It is unclear in the body camera footage at what point Jolliffe was shot.

Seattle police said Officer Leonardo Rodriguez is on administrative leave and did not provide details indicating any other officers shot Jolliffe.

Jolliffe did not die from an officer’s gunshot, according to a King County medical examiner’s report released Tuesday. The office determined his death was a suicide by a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. It could not release details regarding how badly, how many times, or where Jolliffe was shot in addition to his self-inflicted wound.

Jolliffe had served 27 years in prison following his conviction of a double homicide and a brief escape from the corrections facility.

In 1993, in the J&M Cafe in Seattle’s Pioneer Square, a 21-year-old Jolliffe was walking to the bathroom when he stepped on another man’s foot. The man, Steven Goddard, confronted Jolliffe and they soon got into a fight. When bouncers broke it up, Goddard and his friend, Tony Hendricks, fought with Jolliffe in an alley along First Avenue, according to King County prosecutors.

A manager from the cafe broke up the fight again and watched as Goddard and Hendricks walked away, both unarmed. Moments later, the two were shot with a 9 mm handgun, both dying of their injuries; Jolliffe was convicted of second-degree murder. A King County Superior Court jury said he killed the men in anger, not self-defense.

During Jolliffe’s prison term, he managed to escape from Clallam Bay Corrections Center in 1999 alongside another incarcerated person by using a dummy and a puffed-up bed to fool guards.

More than 100 officers from several departments using dogs and a helicopter searched for Jolliffe around the prison. The two escapees cleared two 12-foot fences topped with razor wire. A guard found Jolliffe hiding under a truck near the prison.

Four months were added to Jolliffe’s sentence for the escape, said Washington State Department of Corrections spokesperson Chris Wright. After he was released in November 2017, Jolliffe was on parole for another two years until 2019.