Shortly after five A.M. on November 17, the Federal Way Police received a 9-1-1 call from a woman at 30602 Pacific Highway South. The women said she had just managed to escape from being held hostage by an armed man in a nearby apartment and that he was still there.

By chance, the Valley Special Response Team (SRT), a police SWAT team that covers the jurisdictions of Auburn, Federal Way, Kent, Port of Seattle, Renton and Tukwila, was at Federal Way police headquarters that morning. The SRT was participating in a DEA sweep of suspected drug dealers occurring countywide later in the day and were at headquarters being briefed. When the 9-1-1 call came in, some of the SRT members were re-deployed to the apartment complex in question.

Inside one of the apartments, a 44-year-old man, whose name is being withheld by the King County Sheriff's Office pending investigation, was armed and in possession of a money bag.

During the past week, "we have recovered evidence of possibly two other robberies that occurred in the city of Federal Way that this suspect may be responsible for," said Stacy Flores of the FWPD.

The man, who was fatally shot by a member of the SRT after an all-day standoff with police, had gone to the apartment of an elderly acquaintance around four A.M. There he called up another friend in the same apartment building and asked her to come over and she did. However, once in the apartment, the woman (whose name is also being withheld by police) realized that her friend had probably committed a serious crime, and tried to leave.

He wouldn't let her go.

At a moment when he was distracted, she fled back to her own apartment and called the police.

That's when Toni Gourd, a neighbor with a clear view into the suspect's apartment, woke up to the muffled voices of people talking below her porch.

"It was about five A.M., and although I was conscious of hearing sirens, it wasn't until someone started talking on a bullhorn that I woke up fully and looked out the window," said Gourd.

"When I did, I saw six or seven police officers in the parking lot below, behind parked cars, some were in camouflage, and they all had guns, pointing at the apartment across the way from me."

The suspect was now holding his elderly acquaintance hostage.

"That's when they started to try and negotiate with the man," said Gourd. "This went on for hours. Them talking to him, but occasionally he would take a shot at the police, and they would return fire. Meanwhile I'm watching all this from my window. It was just like watching a western, it was 'Show down at the Federal Way Corral, big time."

At around 11A.M., according to a sheriff's report, the hostage made his way out of the apartment, and the SWAT team fired tear gas into the suspect's hideout, to no avail. He had found a way out via a hole in the ceiling and into the attic, which was a common space covering three apartments.

"I feel sorry for the people who live there," said Gourd. "They work all day and come home to a shot-up building."

After a chase through the attic space of the building, the suspect dropped back into an adjacent apartment, and it was there that once he fired shots into the roof, officers returned fire and killed him.

Because a member of the SRT killed the man, the King County Sheriff's office is conducting an investigation into the matter.

The Valley Special Response Team is comprised of six officers each from the six city agencies, 36 in total. Unlike their regular duties such as patrol, traffic or detective work, their SRT service is an extra-curricular activity.