Deputies initially responded to a disturbance at a house in the 33100 block of E Lake Holm Dr SE around 10:00am when a neighbor called because the man who lives there was “screaming at the top of his lungs.”
Police received another call just before 1:00pm when a neighbor called police to complain that the man had thrown rocks at his house and then broke the windshield of his car. Police said they have responded the house many times before regarding threats, disturbances and mental health complaints.
Due to the man’s history 4 deputies, two armed with less lethal weapons, responded to the house to contact the man about the crime. When deputies arrived the man was standing outside on a deck. Deputies told him he was under arrest for vandalism and he needed to come down off the deck.
The man lit a Molotov cocktail and threw it at the deputies, striking one in the face. The man then ran into a large shed and barricaded himself inside. Within minutes a fire started inside the shed and deputies attempted to extinguish the fire with a garden hose as King County Fire Firefighters were called to the scene.
Deputies said the fire engulfed the shed quickly and spread to a mobile home nearby. Firefighters worked to extinguish the blaze as deputies searched the area for the man, unsure if he had fled from the building during the fire.
King County Guardian One, TAC30, and K-9 searched the neighborhood and a nearby wooded area for the man. Just after 7:00pm, after the fire was extinguished, fire investigators were able to enter the building to conduct a search and discovered a body inside. Positive identification of the remains will be made by the King County Medical Examiner’s Office but are believed to be those of the man police were seeking.
The deputy who was injured by the Molotov cocktail was taken to Valley Medical Center and treated for minor burns to the face and neck.
King County Fire Investigators are conducting the investigation into the nature and cause of the fire.
