Police still investigating apartment building standoff

As of the afternoon after the incident, Police Commander Ralph Krusey said officials do not know what led to a more than four-hour standoff with a man inside an apartment complex in the 900 block of Columbia Avenue.

August 14, 2008 10:18 am
Members of the Snohomish County SWAT team arrive on the scene of an apparent standoff at a Marysville apartment near the intersection of Columbia Avenue and 9th.
Members of the Snohomish County SWAT team arrive on the scene of an apparent standoff at a Marysville apartment near the intersection of Columbia Avenue and 9th.

MARYSVILLE — As of the afternoon after the incident, Police Commander Ralph Krusey said officials do not know what led to a more than four-hour standoff with a man inside an apartment complex in the 900 block of Columbia Avenue.

According to Krusey, the incident started about 2 p.m. Aug. 12 when a resident of the apartment complex, 52, knocked on the apartment door of a woman who lived downstairs from the suspect.

Krusey said when the woman, in her late 60’s, answered her door, the suspect forced his way in way into the apartment and began yelling at her, allegedly wielding a hammer.

Again, Krusey said he did not know why the man decided to target that particular apartment. He added that while the suspect and the woman lived in the same apartment complex, he does not believe they were acquainted.

“She was pretty traumatized,” Krusey said.

Apparently, another apartment resident who witnessed the suspect allegedly enter the woman’s apartment called 911. Upon arriving at the scene, Krusey said police saw the man enter what was apparently his own apartment carrying a hammer. He temporarily came out of the apartment, hammer in hand, but retreated back into the apartment when officers approached. At some point he grabbed a kitchen knife, police reports said, then closed his apartment door and refused to open it for officers.

Attempts by Marysville police to talk the suspect out of his apartment were unsuccessful, Krusey added. At that point, local officers requested the assistance of the Snohomish County Tactical Entry Team. Eventually, officers served the suspect with a warrant for burglary, but the man still refused to leave his apartment.

After an attempt to use pepper gas on the suspect proved unsuccessful, Krusey said county SWAT officers used non-lethal force – namely rubber bullets shot through a window – to subdue the suspect. Krusey said the man was taken into custody about 6:30 p.m. He was booked on a charge of suspicion of burglary, but Krusey said more charges may follow as the investigation continues.

Krusey said incidents such as the stand off are fairly rare in Marysville. He said it has been at least one year since local officials were forced to call for backup from county SWAT officers.