The sheriff’s deputy who struck a pedestrian in a deadly collision Friday morning in Fife was the same deputy who was involved in the fatal shooting of a 20-year-old man less than a month ago, the King County Sheriff’s Office said.
The deputy had just been cleared to return to work on June 30 after the shooting of Tommy Le, sheriff’s spokeswoman Sgt. Cindi West said in a statement. The deputy was identified after the June 13 shooting as Cesar Molina, 38, a 2 1/2-year veteran of the sheriff’s office.
About 2 a.m. Friday, Molina was driving home from work in his patrol vehicle in the 2400 block of Pacific Highway East when he struck the pedestrian, West said.
The pedestrian was hit with “a glancing blow” by the deputy’s driver-side spotlight, then thrown by the force and struck by another vehicle, said Dave Woods, assistant chief of the Fife Police Department, which is leading the investigation.
The road has no streetlights in that area, and the man was wearing dark clothing, Woods added. The victim has not yet been identified.
“It is very early in our investigation,” Woods said. “We’re still trying to figure out why they were in the roadway.”
On June 13, Deputy Molina responded to reports that a man with a sharp object, maybe a knife, was threatening people in the 13600 block of Third Avenue South in Burien. One homeowner told dispatchers he had fired his handgun into the ground, hoping to scare off the man — later identified as Le, of Burien.
When Le continued to approach, the homeowner fled back inside his house. Le, who was barefoot, then pounded on the door and stabbed it, screaming he was “the Creator,” according to the sheriff’s office.
Deputies confronted Le, who refused commands to drop “what they thought was a knife,” West said last month.
Two deputies fired their Tasers, with one of them hitting Le. But it had no effect, West said.
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