Two people were injured and two closed businesses in downtown Olympia were damaged in a widely witnessed shootout early Saturday morning.
On-foot patrol officers with the Olympia Police Department heard the gunshots near Fourth and Franklin Street at approximately 2:30 a.m. on Saturday, July 25, according to department spokesperson Lt. Paul Lower.
A large crowd was running away from the scene when officers arrived.
Officers quickly detained an adult male with a handgun at the scene and called in the Lacey Police Department, Thurston County Sheriff’s Office and Washington State Patrol for backup.
Officers sweeping the area quickly located a male with a gunshot wound in an alley roughly a block away from the scene. He was transported to a local hospital and is being investigated as a likely suspect.
A local hospital later alerted police that another man came into the emergency room with a gunshot wound. Investigators have determined that man was a bystander, according to Lower.
Both injured parties were still in the hospital as of Tuesday afternoon but are expected to recover.
The preliminary investigation has determined that the male suspect arrested at the scene was in an argument with another man at the intersection of Fourth Avenue and Franklin Street, according to Lower.
The male suspect allegedly took out a handgun during the argument and struck the other man with it before pointing it at him.
Seeing the gun pointed at the other man, a third man allegedly pulled out his own firearm and pointed it at the first suspect. That man is alleged to be the injured man that officers later found in the alley.
The two men allegedly fired at each other, firing off an estimated 20 or more gunshots.
In addition to injuring one of the two suspects and a bystander, police determined that the gunshots struck two local businesses.
Both businesses were closed at the time of the shooting and no additional injuries were reported.
The incident is still under investigation, with detectives working through a large amount of physical evidence, ballistic testing and witness interviews.
“There’s a bit of a way to go here,” Lower said Wednesday.
No arrests have been made, but police are maintaining contact with both suspects while the investigation is ongoing.
Anyone with information related to the incident is asked to contact Olympia Police Department detectives at 360-753-8300.
