Source: Tri-City Herald (Kennewick, Wash.)
KENNEWICK, WA—Kennewick police shot a driver early Saturday after he rammed several police cars, injuring at least one officer.
The 33-year-old man was believed wounded in the arm but refused to get out of his white Jeep Cherokee for a couple hours, according to police broadcasts heard through Broadcastify.
The confrontation near the corner of 10th and Union forced the busy intersection to be closed for several hours Saturday, starting at 4:20 a.m.
A few minutes after 4 a.m. a Kennewick officer spotted a Jeep that was reported driving erratically on Friday afternoon. For public safety reasons and recent changes in Washington state laws, police stopped trying to get the Jeep's driver to pull over on Friday.
Then Saturday at 4:06 a.m., a citizen reported a possibly drunk driver swerving in the road and running a red light at 10th Avenue and South Edison Street. Arriving officers believed the white Jeep was the same from the night before.
"He just rammed me," one officer soon told emergency dispatchers.
"He's probably going to come back again. Everybody get out of the way," reported the officer.
The officer said the Jeep then pulled up behind him again. "He's going to ram me," he told dispatchers.
Officers scrambled to get roads closed in the area near the Union Street branch of the Mid-Columbia Libraries and near Grace Baptist Church at the corner of 10th and Union.
An officer reported "shots fired" at 4:20 a.m. and then an officer told dispatchers, "He's trying to back up and ram me again."
Lieutenant Jason Kiel reported later Saturday that just one officer fired at the driver.
The Jeep headed south on Union but turned around in the library parking lot and returned to the intersection, then turned west and stopped in the street on 10th in front of Legacy High School.
"He has his foot on the gas pedal," one officer warned others in the area.
But the car didn't move and the wounded driver remained inside. The driver was conscious but refused to comply with officer commands to get out of the Jeep, said police. Medics were called to wait nearby until the scene was safe.
On-duty SWAT team members also were called in to approach the Jeep using armored equipment to remove the man.
Eventually, he was taken to a hospital for his injuries, said police. And one officer also was treated for injuries from the crash, said officials.
The Tri-Cities Special Investigations Unit, which investigates officer-involved shootings, is handling the investigation.
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