Sandy MaloneShelton, WA – Authorities said a Washington Department of Corrections (DOC) officer who was wounded last week has been charged with staging his own shooting.
The corrections officer claimed he was shot as he got out of his vehicle at about 6 a.m. on Oct. 7 at the Shelton DOC office, KING reported.
He was transported to Mason General Hospital with a non-life threatening gunshot wound to his chest.
The Mason County Sheriff’s Office posted an alert to social media that warned law enforcement officers were looking for an “armed and dangerous person” in downtown Shelton, KING reported.
Two nearby schools and the Mason County courthouse were placed into lockdown while law enforcement officers from multiple agencies searched for the gunman.
Law Enforcement is looking for a potentially armed and dangerous person in the downtown Shelton area. Law Enforcement has set up perimeters and an active K9 search is underway. Please avoid the area. If you see suspicious activity in the area, please call 911.
~40 pic.twitter.com/47e33KrfA3
— Mason County Sheriff (@MasonCoSheriff) October 7, 2021
Investigators interviewed the wounded corrections officer and found some inconsistencies in his story, KCPQ reported.
Probable cause documents showed that authorities were able to recover surveillance video from the jail’s parking lot that showed a blacked-out car leaving the scene.
Investigators interviewed the corrections officer again on Thursday and he admitted that he had asked his sister to shoot him, KCPQ reported.
Detectives interviewed the corrections officer’s sister and she confirmed the story and said he had given her a gun to shoot him with a day before the shooting.
She told investigators that her brother had told her to shoot him in the office parking lot because “there were no cameras and no one would know it was her,” KCPQ reported.
The probable cause affidavit said that the video showed the sister parked a few feet away from the correction officer’s car and then her brother pointed to where he wanted her to shoot him.
Investigators said she fired one round at him from inside her car and struck his forearm, KCPQ reported.
Charging documents showed the bullet went through the correction officer’s arm, through his lower back, and then exited his body through his abdomen.
Court documents said the sister told investigators that she went home after shooting her brother and “placed the spent shell casing in a small cardboard box in her bedroom and left the pistol in her vehicle,” KCPQ reported.
Detectives obtained a search warrant and recovered the gun and shell casings, according to the complaint.
The corrections officer was arrested after his interview on Oct. 14, KCPQ reported. He was booked into the Mason County Jail on suspicion of first-degree assault, first-degree criminal conspiracy assault, drive-by shooting, criminal conspiracy drive-by shooting, and false reporting.
His sister was also arrested, KCPQ reported.
Court documents showed that she was booked into jail on suspicion of first-degree assault, first-degree criminal conspiracy assault, drive-by shooting, and criminal conspiracy drive-by shooting.
Officials have said they do not know the correction officer’s motive for staging the shooting, KCPQ reported.
Holly Matkin
