Puyallup cops who traded gunfire with barricaded domestic-violence suspect identified
Six Puyallup police officers who exchanged gunfire with a barricaded domestic-violence suspect in late January have been identified.
Multiple officers suffered non-life-threatening gunshot injuries when 37-year-old Muelu Salanoa Jr. fired a shotgun twice through his apartment door as police used a battering ram to get inside, according to charging documents.
The Pierce County Force Investigation Team, which conducts deadly police-force investigations through a regional law enforcement partnership, identified the officers who returned fire on Salanoa as: detective Greg Reiber, 46; Sgt. David Beerbower, 40; Sgt. Kevin Karuzas, 44; Patrick Thomson, 34; David Pollett, 44; and Matthew Hurley, 43.
Reiber has been with the department for 21 years, Karuzas for six and Hurley for 13, according to PCFIT. Beerbower has been with the department for eight years, and Thomson and Pollett have served four years each.
Charging documents show Reiber and another officer, Brian Sutphin, were injured by gunfire but do not identify a third officer that PCFIT reported was injured. The Police Department said the injured officers were treated and released the night of the shooting.
Puyallup police Capt. Ryan Portmann told The News Tribune he didn’t have information about which officers were injured but said all of the police involved are in the process of transitioning back to full duty.
Salanoa was struck in the hand by gunfire, according to charging documents. He faces two counts of attempted first-degree murder, as well as charges of first-degree burglary, felony harassment, unlawfully possessing a firearm as a felon and violating a domestic-violence protection order.
Salanoa remains jailed in lieu of $2 million bail. His trial has been scheduled for mid-March.
