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TACOMA, Washington State (AP) – A 69-year-old man armed with a rifle threw incendiary devices at an immigration jail in Washington State early Saturday morning and then was found dead after four policemen arrived and opened fire, authorities said.
The Tacoma Police Department announced that police responded at around 4am to the Tacoma Northwest Detention Center, a US Department of Homeland Security Detention Center that holds migrants awaiting trial. d & # 39; expulsion. The detention center has also placed immigrant-seeking parents away from their children as part of President Donald Trump's "zero tolerance" policy to discourage illegal immigration.
The shooting took place about six hours after a peaceful rally in front of the detention center, said police spokeswoman Loretta Cool.
On Saturday night, the Pierce County Medical Examiner's office identified him as Willem Van Spronsen of Vashon Island, the Tacoma News-Tribune and Seattle Times reported.
Police said Van Spronsen had burned a vehicle and that he had tried to set fire to a large propane tank and set fire to buildings. The police said that in addition to the rifle, he had a satchel and flares.
Police said agents had called Van Spronsen and shots had been fired.
Cool said the four officers fired with their weapons, but she did not have specific details about what had happened. She added that the police did not carry a body camera, but that the area is covered by surveillance cameras in the detention center. She said she did not know if the man had shot the police.
After the shot, police officers went to the shelter, confined the area and set up medical help nearby, police said.
The officers then located Van Spronsen and determined that he had been shot dead and that he had died on the scene.
Authorities say the investigators are getting ready and the police are continuing their investigation. No law enforcement officer was injured. The four Tacoma policemen who fired their weapons were put on paid administrative leave, as is customary in shootings involving officers.
A friend of Van Spronsen said that she thought he wanted to cause a fatal conflict, reported the Seattle Times.
Deb Bartley, who told the Times that she was a friend of Willem Van Spronsen for about 20 years, described him as an anarchist and antifascist, and believes his attack on the detention center was aimed at to provoke a fatal conflict.
"He was ready to stop it," said Bartley. "I think it was a suicide. But he was then able to do it in a way that reflected his political convictions. I know that he went there knowing that he was going to die.
She said that she and other friends of Van Spronsen had received letters by mail "just saying goodbye". He also wrote what she called a manifesto, which she did not want to discuss in detail, the Times reported.
Van Spronsen was accused of assaulting a police officer during a protest outside the detention center in 2018, reported The News-Tribune. According to the court documents, he threw himself on the officer and wrapped his arms around his neck and shoulders while the officer tried to detain a 17-year-old protester on June 26, 2018, according to the newspaper.
According to court documents, the police handcuffed Van Spronsen and discovered that he had a folding stick and a folding knife in his pocket. Van Spronsen pleaded guilty to obstructing the police and was sentenced to a deferred sentence in October, the News-Tribune reported.
In an e-mail to The Associated Press, the GEO group, which operates the 1,575-bed North West Detention Center, said unfounded accusations about the treatment of detainees on its premises "have led to misused aggression and a dangerous environment for our employees, whose safety is our priority priority No form of violence against our employees and our property will be tolerated.We are grateful for the fast action and courageous police department of Tacoma, which has prevented innocent lives from being endangered. "
The GEO group said the Tacoma detention center has modern amenities, such as air conditioning, leisure activities, a bed for each individual and medical care available at all times.
Last year, a federal judge ruled that the state of Washington could pursue its lawsuit to force the GEO group to pay the minimum wage for the work done by the detainees at the detention center.
In November, a Russian asylum seeker who went on a hunger strike to protest the conditions of detention in the detention center committed suicide, decided the office of the Pierce County Medical Examiner.
Mergensana Amar, 40, was removed from his survivor's center on November 15, after attempting suicide while being held in custody at the detention center, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement said.
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