The Vancouver Police Department identified the officer who shot and killed a suspect Friday.
Officer Ed Letarte, 53, remains on an administrative leave while the investigation continues. The man Letarte shot was suspected of stealing a car before crashing it and fleeing into an apartment where children were.
The suspect, who has not been identified, was armed inside the apartment near Northeast 66th Avenue, police and witnesses have said.
Letarte began working for the Police Department in September 1998 and is assigned to patrol duties in the city’s West Precinct. He worked as a domestic violence detective from January 2011 through January 2015. Letarte, who worked for the Honolulu Police Department from July 1991 to September 1998, has been a member of the Southwest Washington Regional SWAT team since December 2005.
Police did not release any other information about the officer or the shooting.
Officials have previously said that officers responded to reports of a stolen car about 6:30 a.m. The car was stolen near the 5800 block of Northeast 41st Circle in the Walnut Grove area, according to The Columbian.
The suspect crashed the stolen car into a bus in the parking lot of the Vancouver Pointe Senior Village retirement community on 66th Avenue, spokeswoman Kim Kapp said. The crash pushed the bus into the building kitchen and ruptured a gas line, Pamella Winter, who lives across the street, said Friday.
The man then ran into the lobby of the retirement community before fleeing into a neighboring apartment complex and into a second-floor home, where a man and his four children were.
Pursuing officers entered the apartment and encountered the suspect, resulting in his shooting. No one else was injured, Kapp said.
— Tony Hernandez
thernandez@oregonian.com
503-294-5928
@tonyhreports
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
