Federal Way officer shot to death on duty
Patrick Maher, 46, a new member of the department, was shot in the abdomen and died at 4:15 p.m. at Harborview Medical Center. He is the first Federal Way police officer to die in the line of duty since the department was created in 1997.
A 28-year-old man was arrested in connection with the shooting.
Police said Maher was sent to the convenience store at the corner of South 272nd Street and Pacific Highway South yesterday morning on an unrelated assignment when he saw a fight among three people. He broke up the fight, which involved the suspect's 24-year-old brother and the suspect's 22-year-old ex-girlfriend.
The suspect fled on foot across the street into Kent, ran past a strip mall and tried to climb a fence. A struggle ensued, in which police said the suspect grabbed Maher's gun. Maher was shot in the stomach, below his bulletproof vest, police said.
After the shot was fired, the suspect's brother grabbed him and held him to the ground until police arrived. Last night red flowers were placed behind the police line, near the spot where Maher was shot.
Maher had spent the past seven months with the Federal Way Police Department, following seven years with the Honolulu Police Department, where he received a certificate of merit for pulling a person over the railing of a high-rise building as the person tried to jump. Maher is a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard, retiring as a senior special agent.
He is survived by his wife and children.
Honolulu Police Lt. David Eber called him "one of the hardest-working guys I ever had working for me. I would have been happy to have 100 more like him."
Maher was known there as an extremely safety-conscious officer who always wore body armor at work, even when it wasn't mandatory, Eber said. Younger officers often looked to Maher for advice because of his 20 years of Coast Guard experience prior to joining the force, Eber noted.
He transferred from Hawaii to Federal Way along with several other officers looking for better pay. Those officers had been calling Maher's concerned ex-colleagues throughout yesterday with updates.
Since 1998, the Honolulu Department lost 82 veteran officers to police departments in Nevada, Oregon and Washington that pay higher salaries, Chief Lee Donohue told the Honolulu Star Bulletin last year.
"Federal Way is the latest police department to find the mother lode here," Donohue said.
In a letter to the editor published in the Honolulu Advertiser in January, Maher said he was frustrated by the court system in Hawaii.
"The state of Washington will reap the benefits of the experience I gained in Hawaii," he said. "Catching criminals is not the problem. The people need better results from the courts. Police officers cannot strike — we look for our futures elsewhere."
Federal Way Mayor Jeanne Burbidge promised a thorough review of what happened.
"We know that officers are continually risking themselves, but this isn't something that we expected," she said. "If there are any changes to prevent this from happening, we will take them."
Kent police are handling the investigation.
The officer is the second to be fatally shot in the state in little more than a month. In June, Chelan County Sheriff's Deputy Saul Gallegos was killed during a traffic stop in Manson. Jose Sanchez Guillen, 21, was charged with aggravated first-degree murder.
In June 2002, King County Sheriff's Deputy Richard Herzog was killed during a struggle with a naked man who was running through traffic in Newcastle. Ronald Matthews has been charged with aggravated first-degree murder.
In the past decade, 20 officers have been killed in the line of duty in Washington, according to the Washington State Law Enforcement Memorial.
Seattle Times staff reporters Angel Gonzalez, Mira Oberman and Mark Rahner contributed to this report.