KELSO — A Kelso police officer Wednesday shot and killed a man who attacked a gas station clerk, a customer and the officer with a walking stick, authorities said.
The suspect, a 27-year-old black man described as a transient, was reported to have shoplifted from a gas station food mart in West Kelso, said Cowlitz County Sheriff Mark Nelson, whose office is reviewing the shooting.
The sheriff’s office identified the officer as John Johnston, a 22-year veteran of the Kelso Police Department, but did not immediately disclose his race. The suspect was not named.
The officer went to the gas station at about 8 a.m. to take a report about the suspected shoplifting, investigators said.
As the officer and one of the two female clerks inside were trying to view surveillance video, the man returned and began striking the other clerk as well as a customer.
The officer tried to intervene but the man struck him as well, inflicting head, arm and leg injuries, Nelson said.
The officer then drew his weapon and fired. Nelson said he did not know how many shots were fired.
The man died at the scene. The clerk, customer and officer were taken to a hospital, but the extent of their injuries was not clear.
Johnston was treated and released Wednesday morning, but was being referred to a doctor for a possible knee injury, Kelso Police Chief Andrew Hamilton told The Daily News of Longview.
Hamilton said the officer had been placed on paid administrative leave, per standard procedure after a shooting.
Nelson said sheriff’s deputies and police interacted with the suspect several times over the past week and that deputies arrested him last weekend, but he did not immediately disclose details of the arrest.
Investigators were planning to search the Flying K food mart where the attacks took place and were trying to determine whether surveillance video captured the shooting.
The store’s owners said the surveillance system was being changed so it’s unclear whether footage would be available, Nelson said.
“Obviously people have a right to defend themselves and a need to defend themselves,” Nelson said.
“When an officer sees someone who he believes that their life is possibly in danger … they have the right and the responsibility to respond to that.
“I’m not going to second-guess what the officer did. He was the one who was there.”
