It had been just another normal day on the beat for Deputy Krista McDonald when she heard a call on her police radio for back up from two of her colleagues. It was the 23rd of January back in 2011 when the call came through in Port Orchard, Washington. Deputy McDonald raced to the scene in support of her colleagues.
Her two colleagues, Deputies Ejde and Stacey had been called to a Walmart store in Port Orchard. They had been told that there was a distinct possibility that inside the store was an individual carrying a firearm. Upon arrival the two deputies identified the man and his younger traveling companion as they were relaxing outside the front of the store. At this point Deputy McDonald arrived and the three officers approached the pair. Despite the officers requesting the man to identify himself numerous times, the man refused to comply with the officer’s wishes. At this point, things took a turn for the worse.
The man, later identified as Anthony Martinez, decided he no longer wanted to be interviewed by the officers and made a run for it. With two of the officers in pursuit, Martinez sprinted across the open car park before turning to face the officers once more. Edje was the closest officer to Martinez when the assailant spun around, pulling a handgun from his jacket and firing numerous times towards Deputy Edje who was hit twice to the upper body. He managed to take cover in a flowerbed to avoid taking any further bullets.
Martinez then turned his attention to Deputy Stacey and once again fired off numerous shots towards the officer, this time registering a direct hit to the officer’s right shoulder. Watching on from across the car park, from her back up position at her patrol car deputy McDonald could only watch on in horror as two of her colleagues had been injured. She realized that she needed to act quickly and proceeded to fire her own handgun towards Martinez. Courageously and with back up or covering fire she approached Martinez, returning his fire as she went. She hit him in the leg and he went down. This prompted his young travelling companion to rush to his aid. An act that cost them their life as Martinez first shot his friend before killing himself.
There would be no need to call a criminal defense attorney from Port Orchard after this incident. Krista McDonald quite rightly received a Medal of Valor for her actions during an awards ceremony at the White House. Thanks to Deputy McDonald both her colleagues made full recoveries from their injuries.
