Pierce County Deputy Killed Near Tacoma In Confrontation With Burglary Suspects

Law enforcement escort body of Pierce County Sheriffs Deputy Daniel McCarney, killed in service
The Pierce County Sheriff's Department posted this photo to their Facebook page, announcing the death of Deputy Daniel A. McCartney.

A burglary investigation that began Sunday night south of Tacoma in Frederickson ended with the death of a Pierce County Sheriff’s Deputy.

34-year-old Daniel McCartney of Yelm, Wash. died in surgery for gunshot wounds at St. Joseph’s Medical Center.

He served in the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office nearly four years. He’s also a Navy veteran and a married father of three sons, according to the Pierce County Sheriff’s office.

After McCartney was taken to the hospital, Sheriff Paul Pastour called the shooting a loss to the entire community.

The Sheriff’s office said on Twitter that a public fund had been established for McCartney’s family, saying it was the only such fund set up by the department and his family. 

One of the robbery suspects, identified as a white male, also died during the confrontation with McCartney.

Pierce County Sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said Monday morning the search continues in the Spanaway and Fredrickson areas of Pierce County as officers and K-9 units look for a suspect.

McCartney started his law enforcement career in Grays Harbor County. Jeff Myers, the police chief in the small city of Hoquiam, remembers hiring McCartney in 2009.

“Besides his big, red shock of hair, he’s just a nice kid,” Myers recalled. “You know, he served in the Navy. Actually, he was in the Navy but he got assigned to a security unit with the Army. So he did some time there in Afghanistan, and was very fit, was a personal trainer at the YMCA before he got hired.”

McCartney left Hoquiam for the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department in 2013.

Copyright 2017 KUOW. Additional reporting by Will James/KNKX. Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

Related Stories:

The Calistoga Reach Levee Set Back in Pierce County is an engineered levee set back to help the river flow in a more natural way. The project was part of a larger Floodplains by Design grant. // Courtesy the Washington State Department of Ecology

Rethinking levees to reduce flood risk

Washington Rep. Steve Tharinger of the 24th district became intimately acquainted with levee setbacks when he discovered the levee protecting his house on the lower Dungeness River was not only not protecting his house, but harming the ecosystem too.
“I sold my house and the five acres in a barn we had, so that we’d have more room to move that levee back and give the river more room,” Tharinger said. Continue Reading Rethinking levees to reduce flood risk

Read More »
A woman and her baby are pictured in front a blurred forest scene near sunset. She's smiling toward the camera. She has shoulder-length brown hair that's parted in the center and is wearing a grey sweater. Her baby looks toward the right and has chubby cheeks and is wearing a red and black plaid long-sleeve top and blue jeans.

‘It happened exactly the way we all had feared’: Idaho women sue state for failure to protect patients with pregnancies that threatened life and health

An Idaho woman worried a year ago what might happen to her family if she needed an abortion after the state’s ban took effect. That fear came true. Now, the Caldwell woman is suing. Continue Reading ‘It happened exactly the way we all had feared’: Idaho women sue state for failure to protect patients with pregnancies that threatened life and health

Read More »