Standoff shooting in small Washington town leaves three dead, two sheriff's deputies critically wounded

A SWAT team trying to breach the door of a rural home outside Spangle, Washington, was met with gunfire Tuesday afternoon in a shootout that left three people dead and two Spokane County sheriff's deputies critically wounded, according to the Spokane County Sheriff's Office. Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels said both deputies suffered life-threatening gunshot wounds and remained hospitalized as of Tuesday evening.

Deputies were dispatched to the home around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday after a woman told a neighbor that her brother had shot her, authorities said. When deputies arrived, they determined the man had an active felony warrant and believed there might be additional victims inside. A SWAT team and deputies approached the house and attempted to breach the door; they were "met with gunfire," Nowels said. Other deputies returned fire while pulling their wounded colleagues to safety.

What is known so far

Three people were killed in the exchange, including the gunman, Nowels said. Deputies found one person dead inside the home and another in the yard; officials have not said whether either of those two is the suspect or said where his body was located relative to the others, and they have not released any names. The woman who first reported being shot suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to a hospital along with the two wounded deputies. No motive has been given, and the sheriff's office has not said whether the warrant was connected to Tuesday's call.

The shooting prompted a brief closure of nearby highway lanes at the Interstate 90 and U.S. 195 interchange so that an ambulance could move the wounded deputies to a Spokane hospital, according to Spokane television station KREM, which cited the Washington State Patrol. Spangle is a town of roughly 300 people about 20 miles south of downtown Spokane, in the wheat country of the Palouse near the Idaho border.

"It's a very tragic day in Spokane County. A lot of families have been affected," Sheriff John Nowels said, adding of the wounded deputies: "Both of our deputies, fighting for their lives."

A rising national toll on officers

The shooting adds to a run of violent encounters between law enforcement and armed suspects that federal data shows has been building for several years. The FBI's "Officers Killed and Assaulted in the Line of Duty, 2025" report, released in May by the Bureau's Criminal Justice Information Services Division, found that 53 officers were feloniously killed nationwide last year, 43 of them with firearms, while nonfatal assaults on officers have climbed since 2021, with firearms used to injure officers in more than 300 assaults a year since 2020. The report draws on voluntary submissions from thousands of federal, state, county, city, tribal and university police agencies.

Spokane County, a mix of the city of Spokane and sprawling rural farmland, has had several deputy-involved shootings in recent years, most of them resulting in the death of an armed suspect rather than injuries to officers. Tuesday's shooting is notable locally for the number of people killed and for leaving two deputies in critical condition simultaneously.

Who is affected

Nowels described the two wounded deputies as young SWAT team members, both with small children, though he did not release their names or exact ages, citing the ongoing investigation. Their families, along with the relatives of the three people killed, have not been publicly identified. Spangle's small, close-knit population means the shooting is likely to touch many residents directly; the sheriff's office has not said whether the home involved was a long-term residence in the town or on surrounding farmland.

The Spokane County Sheriff's Office, headquartered in downtown Spokane and led by Nowels since 2023, patrols unincorporated areas of the county as well as small contract cities; its SWAT team is typically called out for warrant service involving violent felony suspects, barricaded individuals, or hostage situations.

What happens next

The sheriff's office said it is investigating the shooting and the circumstances that led to it, including how the warrant and the 911 call connected. Washington law generally requires that deadly force incidents involving law enforcement be reviewed by an outside body rather than the agency whose officers were involved. The state Legislature created the Office of Independent Investigations in 2021 under Chapter 43.102 of the Revised Code of Washington specifically to conduct independent reviews of deadly force by police and sheriff's deputies statewide; it was not immediately clear Tuesday which agency would lead the outside review of this shooting, or whether the office's eastern Washington operations, which have been expanding into the region, would be involved. The Washington State Patrol, which assisted at the scene and briefly managed the highway closure, has not said whether it will take any independent investigative role.

No names — of the deceased, the suspect, or the wounded deputies — had been released as of Tuesday evening, and the sheriff's office said an update would follow as next of kin are notified. The conditions of the two deputies had not been updated publicly since Tuesday's statement describing their injuries as life-threatening.