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News brief: Deputy Wallace will be out for unknown length of time over fatal shooting

Updated at 9:13 a.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office said this morning it was Deputy Matt Wallace who shot and killed a motorist he encountered with a knife on state Route 6 early yesterday morning.

Wallace is 37 years old and has been with the sheriff’s office for nine years, according to Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown.

Wallace was alone and on routine patrol when he stopped and approached a car parked at a gravel turnout near Boistfort shortly after midnight, according to the sheriff’s office.

Initial reports indicate he observed the man who was bleeding heavily from what he thought were self-inflicted wounds, and when he tried to speak with him, the man lunged out the vehicle with a large knife.

Wallace shot the man who died at the scene, according to the sheriff’s office. The dead man is still identified only as a 64-year-old resident of Napavine.

Wallace was not injured, according to Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown. He is on paid administrative leave for an unknown length of time, according to Brown.

“There’s just a process he has to go through before he comes back to work,” Brown said.

A team of outside law enforcement officers is investigating the incident.

The Regional Sheriff’s Critical Incident Investigation team is made up of deputies from the surrounding counties of Thurston, Pacific, Mason and Grays Harbor and the Washington State Patrol.

The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office is taking the lead in this investigation, according to Brown.

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For background, read “Deputy fatally shoots Napavine man on state Route 6” from Thursday November 1, 2012 at 8:30 a.m., here [1]