PORT ANGELES — People didn’t take long to come to their feet Tuesday to applaud Clallam County sheriff’s deputies Matthew Murphy and Andrew Wagner.
Dozens of them already were standing because no seats were left in the Clallam County Courthouse hearing room to see the officers receive medals of valor.
Sheriff Bill Benedict put the star-shaped medallions around their necks for their role in shooting and killing Shawn Roe outside the Longhouse Market & Deli on Sept. 20.
Roe had killed Forest Service Officer Kristine Fairbanks at the Dungeness Forks campground and had killed Sequim retiree Richard Ziegler earlier that day, police said.
In remarks prior to presenting the medals, Benedict said Murphy and Wagner were among the 80 officers from 20 agencies who assisted in the manhunt.
Most of the officers were assigned to containment of the area.
Containment, Benedict said, was one of the “most boring duties” in law enforcement.
Furthermore, officers thought Roe had abandoned his Dodge van and vanished deeper into Olympic National Forest.
Roe, though, had exited the woods near Louella Road, killed Ziegler, stole his truck and eventually drove to the Longhouse.
That’s where a security guard recognized him and called 9-1-1.
Murphy and Wagner, closest to the store, arrived and spotted him through its windows.
Benedict praised them for deciding not to endanger customers and employees and waiting for Roe to leave.
That’s when they challenged him, and he drew a pistol from his waistband and fired, Benedict said.
According to the proclamation presented to both deputies, they “responded with lethal fire from their duty weapons, displaying great courage and resolve in the face of immediate, life-threatening peril . . .
“The actions of Deputies Murphy and Wagner most certainly saved additional lives from being lost at the hands of this heavily armed and clearly homicidal individual …
“[Murphy and Wagner] demonstrated professional judgment and conspicuous courage in the face or an armed and dangerous adversary.”
No time to wonder
After the ceremony, Benedict said other officers will receive commendations for their actions following the Fairbanks killing but that he wanted Murphy and Wagner to stand apart.
The outcome of events at the Longhouse were the result of training, he said.
“It went very quickly,” he said, “probably two or three seconds.
“When they confronted the suspect, it wasn’t the time to be thinking whether use of lethal weapons was necessary.”
Roe, 36, had left his home in Everett and camped in his van Dungeness Forks.
Fairbanks, 51, approached him because the vehicle had no license plates.
She radioed Roe’s identity to the 9-1-1 dispatcher but did not answer the dispatcher’s subsequent queries.
A sheriff’s deputy and a Washington State Patrol trooper went to the campground and found Fairbanks dead of a gunshot to her head.
At Tuesday’s presentation, Benedict said she had been “ambushed.”
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Reporter Jim Casey can be reached at 360-417-3538 or at jim.casey@ peninsuladailynews.com.
