Patient shot dead by police at Olympia hospital

Patient shot dead by police at Olympia hospital


Officers arrived at the hospital and were directed to a 43-year-old Elma man in the emergency room who had been brought into the hospital by his mother with a head injury. The mother told hospital personnel he might be armed.


Burkett remained in the emergency room with police present while treatment for his head injury continued.





The officer involved in the shooting is a 13-year veteran of the Olympia Police Department. He has been placed on administrative leave, in accordance with standard procedure, during an investigation of the shooting.

Police said one main focus of the investigation will be to determine how the patient got into the treatment room - after he had been searched - with a third firearm.

"We're not sure where it came from," says Sgt. Jim Partin of the Thurston County Sheriff's Department. "It's part of the investigation obviously to find out. Was it on his person? Was it hidden in the room? (We) don't know where it came from - if it came in a backpack, or coat. Who knows?"

Hospital officials said nothing remotely like this incident has ever happened there before.

Officers later determined that all three of the guns confiscated at the hospital were stolen from inside a house in McCleary.

Officials say they believe Burkett entered the house through a shattered window while the homeowner is out of town, then took the three guns from a small arsenal of dozens of weapons inside the home.

Police came to the home Saturday afternoon and removed the remaining weapons for safekeeping at the homeowner's request.

It appears Burkett lived in a low-income housing complex in Elma, about 30 miles southwest of Olympia.

Elma police say their records show that one of their officers had a run-in with Burkett just the other night.