Wife says more time on phone might have saved husband's life

Tiffany Diam Pham believes if she had spent a few more minutes on the phone with her husband, he would still be alive.

Duong Pham, 32, was fatally shot Tuesday by a Tukwila police officer after he barricaded himself inside his Renton home with a handgun for 12 hours. He died of a gunshot through the neck, said a Medical Examiner's Office spokesman.

The incident started at 5:30 a.m. in the 1900 block of Queen Avenue Northeast in Renton, when Tiffany Pham said she came home after spending the night at her father's and found her husband drunk and violent.

Although a no-contact order had been issued against him after a domestic-violence dispute in October, his wife said they still lived together.

She went to a neighbor's house and called 911. Duong Pham refused to leave when police officers arrived.

For about 30 minutes around 9 or 10 a.m., Tiffany Pham said, she talked to her husband on his cellphone. She said one of his sons and his mother also talked to him. She said police told her it was too dangerous for her or her family to enter the home.

"He said he was sad, and he was a little bit buzzed," Tiffany Pham, 30, recalled yesterday. "He said he wanted his family to love him more. I said, 'We all love you. You need some treatment. You have to come out. You have to come out. If you come out now, it's easier.' "

She said they ended the phone call with him agreeing to put on some warm clothes and walk out the front door. But he didn't.

Tiffany Pham said she, her family and police tried to call his cellphone later, but he didn't pick up, and she doesn't know why.

Renton police spokeswoman Penny Bartley said officers lost contact with Duong Pham about 11 a.m. At 3:30 p.m., police sent in a robot to look for him. At 4:15 and 4:45 p.m., police gassed the two-story home. Duong Pham did not respond, Bartley said.

At 5:30 p.m., a South King County SWAT team entered the home. As officers swept through the house, one was hoisted through an opening in the ceiling into the attic. Bartley said Duong Pham was there, holding a handgun.

It's unclear what happened next. But Bartley said within seconds, Duong Pham was shot at least three times. He died at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. The officer was not injured. It's unknown if Duong Pham fired a shot.

The officer, who has not been identified, is on paid administrative leave.

Duong Pham was a loving husband with a drinking problem, Tiffany Pham said yesterday. "It was the regular ups and downs of a marriage," she said. "We were working things out. He only had a problem when he drank."

She said they'd been married for 10 years, had four children and co-owned a landscaping business. She said he emigrated from Vietnam with his family in 1990.

In October, Duong Pham was charged with fourth-degree domestic-violence assault against Tiffany Pham, and the no-contact order was issued. Duong Pham's death was the second fatal shooting by police in South King County in recent days. Saturday night, Kent bicycle officers shot and killed a man when they said he sped toward them in a Jeep.

Michael Ko: 206-515-5653 or mko@seattletimes.com