Peninsula Daily News news services
SEQUIM — The man who fatally shot a U.S. Forest Service officer during a traffic stop in Olympic National Forest was wanted by the state Department of Corrections for failing to show up at an August meeting with his probation officer.
The probation officer had requested an arrest warrant for Shawn M. Roe, 36, who died Saturday in a shootout with sheriff’s deputies, but Mason County Superior Court had not yet issued the warrant, Department of Corrections spokesman Chad Lewis said.
The FBI and local authorities are investigating the Saturday afternoon shooting of Officer Kristine Fairbanks, 51, and a not-yet-identified man in his 60s who lived in the Louella Road area east of Sequim.
“All of these crimes were within walking distance,” said state Trooper Krista D. Hedstrom.
Hedstrom said investigators today were searching a nearby campground, Dungeness Forks in the national forest, about five miles south of Sequim, for evidence and the possibility of more crime scenes.
“We don’t want to say that there’s nothing else out there, but so far we haven’t come across any additional scenes,” Hedstrom said this afternoon.
All the people who live near the home of the male victim were visited by officers Saturday evening and every resident has been accounted for, she said.
Investigators were still in the process this afternoon of contacting everyone who had stayed at Dungeness Forks Campground, where some people believe Roe had camped.
The man who was shot in his home has not been identified because authorities are having some difficulty contacting his family, who live in another state.
Hedstrom said investigators did not know what they would find when they got inside a van they believe was driven by Roe and the stolen truck he was driving when Fairbanks pulled him over.
“Until we get into that van, we don’t know what he was doing out there in the woods,” Hedstrom said. “We just have a lot of questions.”
Investigators have speculated that Roe may have believed there was a warrant out for his arrest, she added, but the actual reason for the shootings may never be known.
“Hopefully we can locate a campsite. Hopefully we can get some indicators out of that van. Right now there’s just a lot of questions and we don’t have answers,” she said.
Roe was a convicted felon with “an active criminal history.” He was convicted in 2007 of unlawful im-prisonment, a felony, and malicious mischief, a gross misdemeanor, Lewis said.
In September 2006, Roe’s ex-wife, Mary Catherine Roe, carried a gun to her teaching job at Nisqually Middle School in Lacey because she said she was afraid of her ex-husband and he had threatened her with a gun. She had a domestic-violence protection order against him, The Olympian newspaper reported.
Mrs. Roe said she carried the gun for about a month, but later resigned from her position as a language arts teacher.
Shawn Roe was arrested July 21 in Mason County for failing to report to his probation officer and for consuming alcohol. He was sent to jail for 60 days, 30 of which were spent on electronic home monitoring, according to the Department of Corrections.
Roe finished this jail sentence on Aug. 10 and reported the next day to his community corrections officer. A corrections official said he wasn’t sure why Roe was released early from the Mason County jail.
Roe was carrying three handguns when he was shot and killed on Saturday, including Fairbanks’ service weapon, Hedstrom said. A fourth weapon, a long rifle, was found inside the pickup truck.
Earlier report by Tom Callis and Jim Casey, Peninsula Daily News:
BLYN — A man wanted in the fatal shooting of a U.S. Forest Service officer was shot to death Saturday night fewer than seven hours after the officer was killed.
And late Saturday night — after the PDN‘s newspaper deadline — authorities reported a third shooting.
The victim is apparently a Sequim-area man in his 60s whose truck the alleged killer stole and took to Blyn, where he was killed. No further information was available overnight.
Kristine Fairbanks, a 15-year veteran officer of the U.S. Forest Service and a wife and mother, was shot to death Saturday afternoon after she stopped a suspicious vehicle at a campground in the mountains south of Sequim.
Six and one-half hours later, a Clallam County sheriff’s deputy shot the man authorities said was their suspect, Shawn Roe, 36, whose last known residence was Everett.
Roe had brandished a handgun at deputies outside the Longhouse Market & Deli, 270756 U.S. Highway 101.
County and state law enforcement officers had mounted a search for Roe using dogs and a State Patrol aircraft equipped with infrared detection, but hadn’t been able to trace him.
After the shooting of Roe, sheriff’s deputies checked the license plate of the truck he drove to the Longhouse Market.
They went to the registered owner’s home and found the person fatally shot, KOMO-TV reported.
