Posted on: Tuesday, August 5, 2003
$5M bail set for man in police slaying
Associated Press
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| People yesterday continued to place flowers and other items at the site near Kent, Wash., where Federal Way Police Officer Patrick Maher was shot to death Saturday. Maher had served in the Honolulu Police Department before relocating to the Seattle suburb.
King County Journal via Associated Press |
The deadline for filing charges against Jason Scott Roberts is Thursday. But Dan Donohoe, spokesman for the King County prosecutor's office, said it expects to file charges by tomorrow.
Roberts made his first court appearance before King County District Court Judge Robert McBeth in Kent yesterday. He was being held at the city jail in Kent.
Federal Way Officer Patrick Maher, 46, died Saturday afternoon after he was shot with his own service weapon. Police said he was shot in the abdomen during a scuffle.
Maher, a married father of three, joined the Federal Way Police Department seven months ago, after serving seven years as a police officer in Honolulu.
Before that, he served in the Coast Guard for 20 years, retiring as a senior special agent in investigations, Federal Way Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick said.
He was shot after responding to a call at a convenience store at 272nd Street South and Pacific Highway South, near the boundary between Federal Way and Kent.
Maher broke up a fight among three people, police said, then chased a man later identified as Jason Roberts.
The man ran across 272nd Street, past a strip mall and tried to scale a wooden fence. Maher hauled him back, and the two tangled.
"Somehow, during the scuffle, the suspect got the officer's gun out of its holster," said Paul Petersen, spokesman for the Kent Police Department, which is leading the investigation. "He pointed the gun at his ex-girlfriend and his brother, threatening them."
Maher jumped in the way and tried to disarm the suspect, who fired one shot that struck the officer in the abdomen, under his bulletproof vest, police said.
