Seattle Police Shoot Suspect In Puyallup During Trafficking Bust

PUYALLUP, WA — The Seattle Police Department's Force Investigation Team and the FBI are investigating after a SPD officer shot and injured a drug trafficking suspect in Puyallup early Wednesday morning.

According to Seattle Police Department Chief Adrian Diaz, SPD and the FBI had teamed up for a large, multi-year anti-drug trafficking operation, which culminated in officers serving 19 warrants across Puget Sound simultaneously around 3 a.m. Wednesday.

Most of the warrants were served without incident, except for one: a warrant served in the 1,000 block of 7th Ave SE in Puyallup.

Diaz says that, according to the preliminary investigation into that incident, a Seattle Police Department officer approached the house, knocked and twice announced that he was there to serve a warrant. Upon hearing no response, the officer entered the home. Inside, he saw a suspect walking down a set of stairs towards him and quickly opened fire on that suspect.

Two guns were recovered "near the suspect", Diaz said. It is unclear if the suspect was holding the guns at the time of the shooting, and the incident remains under investigation. SPD has promised to release body cam footage of the shooting sometime within the next three days.

The suspect has since been taken to a nearby hospital, where they remain under armed guard. They are expected to fully recover.

The Seattle Police Department officer was unharmed. The officer has been placed on administrative leave, which is standard protocol during investigations into an officer's use of force.

As for the larger anti-drug trafficking operation, the FBI says 10 people were taken into custody Wednesday morning. The 19 search warrants were only the latest in a series of busts which, combined, have resulted in 37 indictments, 135 search warrants served, and the seizure of 120 guns, 18 kilograms of cocaine, and more than 50,000 pills of fentanyl. Of those 120 guns, SPD said 48 were seized Wednesday alone.