Kittitas County, WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, at 7:37 p.m. the Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office was dispatched to a driving complaint in the Badger Pocket area of Kittitas County.
At 7:42 p.m., deputies attempted to stop a vehicle related to the driving complaint. The suspect failed to stop, resulting in a pursuit into the City of Kittitas.
The vehicle came to a stop at the end of Pierce Street in Kittitas. The suspect exited the vehicle and exchanged gunfire with a Kittitas County Sheriff’s Deputy and a Kittitas Police Officer. The deputy received a fatal gunshot wound and was pronounced dead at Kittitas Valley Hospital. The Deputy has been identified as Ryan Thompson.
The Kittitas Police Officer suffered a gunshot wound and has been airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
The Ellensburg Police Department has identified the suspect in the shooting that killed Thompson and injured a Kittitas Police officer as 29-year-old Ellensburg resident Juan Manuel Flores Del Toro.
The suspect was also shot and is being treated at KVH.
Deputy Thompson was 42 years old. He was born and raised in Walla Walla and graduated from Central Washington University. He started his career as a reserve deputy in 2004 and served as a corrections officer prior to becoming a police officer with Central Washington University Police Department in 2007.
He returned to the Sheriff’s Office in December 2013.
He leaves behind a wife and three children.
