Cop Killer Shoots Himself As SWAT Closes In

"PORT ORCHARD, WA — A suspect in the shooting death of a Washington State trooper during a traffic stop early Thursday fatally shot himself hours later as a SWAT team closed in, authorities said.

"Joshua Jearl Blake was the registered owner of a pickup truck that Trooper Tony Radulescu pulled over just before he was shot to death, and the ex-con was also known to law enforcement in the area for meth convictions, assaulting the mother of one of his children and kicking out the window of a police car, authorities said.

"Investigators tracked Blake to a home near Port Orchard where he shot himself as a SWAT team closed in. He was taken to Tacoma General Hospital, where the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office says he died.

"Radulescu stopped the truck around 1 a.m. on Highway 16 near Gorst, about 20 miles west of Seattle across Puget Sound. He had radioed the location and license plate number, said Trooper Russ Winger.

"When Radulescu didn't respond to dispatcher status checks, a Kitsap County sheriff's deputy went to the scene and found the fatally wounded trooper outside his patrol car. He was taken to St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma where he was declared dead.

"Three hours later, officers found the truck abandoned on a county road near Port Orchard, about two miles from the shooting scene.

"Investigators received a tip on where to find the registered owner and went to the home.

"`As our SWAT team made their approach they heard a single gunshot,` Kitsap County sheriff's Sgt. Ken Dickinson said. `They found a male subject with a single gunshot wound.`"

From CBS News...