SEATTLE, WA - In some good news out of the Pacific Northwest, a career criminal who attempted to kill Seattle police officers last month has assumed room temperature, KOMO News reports.
Christopher Michael Bowman, 62, died on Wednesday as a result of the injuries he sustained during the shootout with Seattle police, according to an update from the independent force investigations team, King County (IFIT-KC).
Bowman was hospitalized in critical condition at Harborview Medical Center after the shootout with Seattle cops in the Ballard neighborhood.
Bowman had been subject to charges of assault in the first degree and assault in the second degree before his “untimely” demise.
On February 12 at approximately 5:07 p.m., an 18-year-old woman called police and reported that Bowman, her ex-husband, was following her and warned dispatchers that he usually carries a firearm, KOMO News reported at the time.
Police ran Bowman through a criminal database and learned that he had an active warrant for rape and other violent crimes in Kansas.
Police responded to the area and found him walking down a city street at around 5:45 p.m. Body-worn camera footage showed a Seattle police officer exiting his cruiser and ordering Bowman to show his hands.
Bowman immediately drew the firearm and shot at the officer, Seattle police said. Officers returned fire, striking Bowman multiple times. Body-worn camera footage from the three responding officers all showed Bowman firing his gun at police.
One female officer was injured when she was struck in the knee by shrapnel from one of Bowman’s shots.
“(Officer) immediately identified himself as ‘police’ and told (Bowman) to get his hands out of his pockets,” prosecutors wrote in charging documents. “(Bowman) responded by pointing his weapon in the (officer’s) direction and firing…his first response when confronted by law enforcement was to use deadly force.”
Bowman’s criminal history of violent crimes goes back to the 1990s, court records showed.
In Kansas, he was convicted of rape, aggravated robbery, aggravated kidnapping, criminal possession of a firearm, and trafficking contraband in a correctional institution, court filings showed. He also has convictions for robbery in the first degree in Missouri.
The King County Medical Examiner’s office is investigating the cause and manner of death.
KOMO reported the IFIT-KC continues to investigate the incident, and detectives are processing evidence and reviewing the officers’ body-worn camera footage.
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