Kidnapper kills self after crash

By ERICA HALL

Staff writer

Federal Way Police are investigating an apparent abduction in which the kidnapper turned a gun on himself after crashing his car and shooting at a Weyerhaeuser security guard.

A citizen contacted the guard at about 8:45 p.m. Sunday after a car crashed near South 336th Street and Weyerhaeuser Way South in Federal Way, according to police.

When the guard checked it out and tried to contact the 33-year-old driver, the driver began shooting at him. Police commander Stan McCall said Monday that authorities weren’t sure how many shots were fired.

The guard escaped unharmed and called 9-1-1. The driver then apparently shot and killed himself, police said.

When police arrived at the scene, they found the man lying on the ground with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the head, police said. As they began to secure the car, they heard muffled noises coming from the trunk.

They freed a woman who McCall said had been badly beaten. She was conscious, he said, but “she was kind of in and out.”

The woman, whose identity was not released, was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where she remained Monday.

She told officers at the scene that the driver had picked her up in Des Moines against her will and taken her to Federal Way in the trunk of the car, according to police.

It was unknown Monday if the two had any personal relationship — McCall said police don’t think they knew each other — but detectives were hoping to interview the woman in the hospital Monday afternoon to learn more.

The King County medical examiner conducted an autopsy Monday afternoon on the man, but the results weren’t available that night. His identity wasn’t to be released until his family was notified.

The vehicle has been locked up in secured storage and police were preparing to search it for more clues that might explain what happened, officials said.

Staff writer Erica Hall: 925-5565, ehall@fedwaymirror.com

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