Another multiple LEO shooting in WA... 12/22/09

[Volucris]

Prayers for full and speedy recoveries.

.


and what scum would do something like that.

[jrainer]

Routine call became battle for life




His brother had called 911 about 9 p.m. to ask that a Pierce County sheriff’s deputy be dispatched to help him get a “drunk and belligerent” Crable out of his house near Tanwax Lake outside Eatonville.

Deputy Kent Mundell and Sgt. Nicholas Hausner responded, thinking they had a family squabble on their hands. David Crable’s 16-year-old daughter, with whom he had a volatile relationship, also was in the house.

Still, whatever argument preceded the 911 call seemed to abate when Mundell and Hausner arrived.

“Everybody was cooperative to begin with, including our suspect,” sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said Tuesday.

Within a matter of seconds, that changed. The deputies were escorting David Crable outside “when he turned on them,” Troyer said.

“He had no reason to do it,” Troyer said. “He was not going to jail. They were going to take him home.”

The 35-year-old man pulled a handgun from under his shirt and opened fire, shooting Mundell, 44, and Hausner, 43. It appears Mundell, though critically wounded, returned fire, Troyer said. Crable died of a gunshot wound inside the small house.

Mundell remained in critical condition Tuesday in the intensive-care unit at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. His prognosis is grave, and law enforcement officers from throughout the area were standing vigil at the hospital.

Hausner was listed in stable condition at Madigan Army Medical Center and was expected to survive.

Both men are married with children.

It was the third attack on Puget Sound-area law enforcement officers in the last two months.

Four Lakewood police officers were shot dead in a Parkland coffee shop Nov. 29 as they prepared for their shifts. A Seattle police officer was killed and his partner wounded Halloween night when they were attacked while discussing a traffic stop in their car.

Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor told reporters Tuesday his employees were saddened by Monday’s attack but resolved to do their jobs.

“We won’t let fear direct us,” Pastor said. “We are not going to police out of fear. We are not going to police out of hiding. Fear is not going to be in charge.”

Still, 14 deputies were placed on administrative leave Tuesday under the department’s “traumatic incident protocols,” Troyer said. Many had responded to the shooting scene, which Troyer described as “horrific.”

People from around the United States flooded the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department’s telephone lines and e-mail accounts with well wishes and offers of support, Pastor said.

A Facebook page dedicated to four slain Lakewood police officers became a forum and a cathartic place in cyberspace Tuesday for residents expressing concern or outrage about the shootings of Mundell and Hausner.

“God, I pray you hold these 2 Sheriff’s in your healing hand & watch over their families, & all brothers & sisters in the force during this difficult time. Please do not let us lose any more officers,” Sue Green Meister wrote on the forum.

Her post is among dozens on the Web page first dedicated to the memory of Lakewood police Sgt. Mark Renninger and officers Tina Griswold, Greg Richards and Ronald Owens.

Mundell and Hausner were dispatched to the house at 34305 Tanwax Court E. on an “unwanted guest” call, Troyer said. Crable’s brother, Edward Jason Crable, lives at the house. David Crable apparently was there causing trouble.

There was a history of bad feelings between David Crable and his relatives, including his brother, mother and daughter, according to court records. Relatives called Crable violent and a danger to himself in court records filed in 2007 and earlier this year.

In a petition seeking a protection order filed in July 2007, Edward Crable said his brother “threatened to kill my dogs and damage my car” after an argument.

“We started talking and he started to get upset then started yelling … that he was going to ruin my life and do anything possible to mess up my move,” Edward Crable wrote. He was planning to move to a new house at the time of the dispute.

David Crable’s mother, Patsy Jo Crable, sought a protection order against him earlier this year.

“I am afraid to be in my own home with him because of the many guns he owns,” the 71-year-old woman wrote in her petition seeking protection. “This constant threat of what he’s going to do has caused me great stress.”

David Crable sought protection orders of his own against his brother and mother, according to court records.

He wrote that his mother “has always been (a) verbally abusive person from childhood to now” and, in a separate petition, that his brother made him “afraid for my life at times because I don’t know what he will actually do to me.”

In June, David Crable pleaded guilty to third-degree malicious mischief and unlawfully displaying a weapon after a confrontation with his daughter and his brother at David Crable’s home in Spanaway.

Crable maintained his innocence as part of his plea but acknowledged there was enough evidence to convict him if he went to trial.

Superior Court Judge Vicki Hogan, at the recommendation of a deputy prosecutor and Crable’s defense attorney, sentenced him to one year in jail on each count but suspended 364 days on both sentences.

Hogan put Crable on probation for two years and required that he pay fines and restitution, maintain law-abiding behavior, attend parenting classes and have “no hostile contact” with his brother, according to court records.

Eatonville community members gathered Tuesday night for a candle-light vigil.

[Safetyhit]

Mundell remained in critical condition Tuesday in the intensive-care unit at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. His prognosis is grave, and law enforcement officers from throughout the area were standing vigil at the hospital.

I pray this man pulls through. He can't leave his family on Christmas.

[Buckaroo]

I pray this man pulls through. He can't leave his family on Christmas.

Amen, praying for his recovery and for his family and fellow Officers.

Buckaroo

[BrnttNW]

Another unfortunate part of all this is that instead of funding better training, equipment, and hiring more officers in our area- WA state Gov (and liberal population as well) will push harder to tighten firearm restrictions.


My prayers are with all three families involved.

[5pins]

Unfortunately Deputy Kent Mundell was removed from life support today.

[dsmguy7]

Unfortunately Deputy Kent Mundell was removed from life support today.

R. I. P. brother. Prayers sent to the family.