Officer Dies In Fall Off Trestle

An Everett police officer, assisting a fellow officer during a car chase early today, died when he fell 100 feet from the Hewitt Avenue trestle just east of Ebey Slough.

The dead officer, Brian Dibucci, lived in Marysville and had been with the Everett Police Department since January 1998, said police spokesman Elliott Woodall. He and another Everett officer had just announced their engagement.

Everett Police Chief James Scharf said Dibucci "can be best described as a young man who is every chief's dream. He understood he was accountable for what he did.

"He always came to work with a smile on his face. He was compassionate to victims and fair to suspects."

He and fellow Officer Margaret Erb were looking forward to calling Dibucci's mother to tell her they were engaged, Scharf said.

Everyone in the department is coming together like a family as a result of Dibucci's death, the chief said, but it's difficult for the officers.

"It doesn't mean you accept it or like it, it just is," Scharf said.

Dibucci, who previously was a member of the Tenino police force, started out as a 911 dispatcher in Lacey in 1988. He trained to become a commissioned officer at the academy at the Washington Criminal Justice Center in Burien.

The last Everett officer killed in the line of duty was Detective John Fox, who died Nov. 23, 1920, in a shootout with a robber, Woodall said.

Today's incident began about 3:15 a.m. when another officer tried to pull over a car that had been driving erratically in Everett. The driver kept going, heading east across the trestle that leads from Everett to Highway 2 and Lake Stevens. At least four officers joined in the chase.

Woodall said the fleeing driver, at the wheel of a 1988 Honda Prelude reported stolen Sunday from Lynnwood, was going too fast to maneuver a slight curve and crashed into a barrier at the east end of the trestle where the road splits into three ramps.

The fleeing driver, who had driven up the center ramp that exits onto 20th Street Southeast, and his passenger were arrested. Both men are in their 20s, Woodall said.

Dibucci had followed the patrol car in pursuit and had parked on another ramp, which branches off toward Lake Stevens.

What occurred after that is still somewhat of a puzzle. Dibucci was out of his car, probably covering the other officers as they approached the car they'd been chasing. It's unclear whether he slipped between the two ramps as he was leaning over the barrier, Woodall said.

The other officers noticed his patrol car after arresting the two men. When they saw their colleague was not inside, they began searching the area with lights and saw his body below the trestle.

Tenino Police Chief Jim Swenson said Dibucci had been with his department 2 1/2 years.

"Not only was he an officer here, but he was a very good friend of ours," Swenson said.