Road rage incident leaves driver with hammer shot dead by trooper, Washington cops say
A road rage incident ended in the deadly shooting of a driver armed with a hammer on a Washington highway, authorities said.
The incident happened after 4 p.m. on the shoulder of Interstate 5 in Everett, near milepost 197 on May 16, the Snohomish County Multiple Agency Response Team said in a news release.
A man had rammed into a Washington State Department of Transportation contractor’s vehicle and “a lift that was on the shoulder of I-5, operating over the slough,” with two contractors on it, according to officials.
He had a hammer and got into an “altercation” with the contractors and the Washington State Patrol trooper who responded to the road rage report, authorities said.
“During the altercation, the WSP trooper shot the suspect,” the team said.
The man was given aid after the shooting, but died at the scene, the team said. His identity and cause of death will be determined by the medical examiner.
One of the transportation agency’s contractors had non-life-threatening injuries.
After the shooting, the northbound lanes of I-5 were blocked, keeping drivers stuck in traffic for hours.
The lanes finally reopened just before midnight, the transportation’s traffic account posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“That was horrible. I spent over 6 hours in traffic dead lock. Alternate routes going north are completely jammed,” user @2Blu_Angles wrote.
“I had to give up going north after waiting 7 hours in traffic. Im sure a lot of people waited longer. Is there any way to stop this complete closure of a major freeway in the future???” @Crytalers posted.
This story was originally published May 17, 2024 at 12:51 PM with the headline "Road rage incident leaves driver with hammer shot dead by trooper, Washington cops say."
