(RoyalPatriot.com )- Police in Washington descended upon a neighborhood near another university for what they describe as an unrelated incident, just miles away from the Moscow, Idaho, crime scene where four nearby college students were murdered.
Residents at a Pullman, Washington, building on Southeast Latah Street near Main Street were evacuated after hearing what one person described as gunshots hours after police arrived at the scene, waking up a neighborhood already on edge.
The Pullman activity was unrelated to the murders in Moscow, Idaho, according to a Pullman Police Department employee.
Police were called to a “weapon offense” just after 8:35 p.m. on Wednesday. When they arrived, they discovered a man in his 30s “was threatening to kill his roommates.”
Police attempted to speak with the man before he barricaded himself inside his apartment. Pullman Police Chief Jake Opgenorth stated that he “began shooting from his apartment” as crisis mediators attempted to contact him.
Opgenorth said the male was shot by a Whitman County Regional SWAT Team member after fruitless negotiations, escalating behavior, and constant danger to the public and officers. The suspect’s body was discovered when the Whitman County Regional SWAT Team cleared the apartment. Police have not identified those involved.
Witnesses and neighbors reported hearing several gunshots in the area.
Just after three in the morning local time, WSU Pullman issued its first official warning regarding the “SWAT TEAM OPERATION.” Around 4:30 a.m., a follow-up alert stated that Pullman Police Department had “resolved the situation” and that the area was now clear.
While the university was not directly involved in the incident, Phil Weiler, vice president of university marketing and communications at WSU Pullman, said that the institution “issued a shelter-in-place order to notify our students and ensure they avoided the area.”
The crime scene in Moscow, Idaho, where four University of Idaho students were killed more than a month ago, is only about 15 minutes and nine miles away from this incident.
The bodies of Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 20, Ethan Chapin, 20, and Xana Chernodle were found inside the girls’ off-campus home on November 13.
