A man is dead after Bellevue SWAT opened fire in a South Seattle neighborhood while serving a warrant.
Bellevue police spokeswoman Carla Iafrate said shortly before 5 a.m. Friday, SWAT officers were serving a warrant at a home in the 5000 blocks of 43rd Avenue South when the officer-involved shooting occurred.
The victim, identified as 51-year-old Russell Lydell Smith, was taken to Harborview Medical Center, where he died.
The warrant was for Smith and another man who are suspects in several robberies in Bellevue.
It is not known who fired first, but neighbors said they heard the chaos after SWAT moved in.
"(It was) very scary and frightening. We huddled together in the bedroom for a while until the SWAT team came and evacuated us,” said neighbor David Keyes.
Smith’s gold Mercedes, riddled with bullets, somehow smashed into Anthony Correa's truck.
Correa said he knew nothing about what was going on until his landlady called him at work.
“She sent me some pictures and showed me a nice shot from across the street of my car backed into,” said Correa.
Meanwhile, Seattle police said the suspect might also have been responsible for robberies in Seattle, but Bellevue police were the lead Friday morning.
Neighbor Guy Davis said he saw a Bellevue detective parked in front of his home last week.
“I said, ’What’s going on?’ And he said, ‘We’re watching somebody,’ and I said, ‘OK, should I be concerned?’ And he said, ‘No, it’s just something down the street.’ Well, it was right next door,” said Davis. “Really, I’m not supposed to be concerned? I have three kids that could have been hit with random (gun) fire. There was a full shootout right in front of my house and I’m not happy about it.”
The second suspect in the warrant was not found.
No officers were injured.
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