Deputy seeking suspect mistakenly shoots off-duty officer

An off-duty officer in Washington state died after first being stabbed by a robbery suspect who showed up at his home while evading police, and then being mistakenly shot by a sheriff’s deputy who responded to the scene.

Vancouver police officer Donald Sahota, 52, collapsed on his porch as he was shot Saturday night, authorities said.

The shooting occurred as police tried to catch a man wanted for robbing a gas station at gunpoint. The suspect fled the gas station in Vancouver, near Portland, Oregon, with several hundred dollars, authorities said. He left in a stolen Mercedes and eluded police on a busy highway.

Officers stopped his vehicle with spike strips, but he ran off and ended up about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the gas station, at the officer’s home in the city of Battle Ground, Washington.

The suspect pounded on the door and said he’d been in a car crash and needed help. Nothing in an account released by investigators late Sunday suggested the officer and suspect knew each other.

Sahota’s wife called 911 and realized that the man at her door matched the description of a robbery suspect, authorities said. She remained on the phone and told dispatchers that her husband, an armed, off-duty police officer, was headed outside to confront the man and detain him for law enforcement.

The suspect began fighting with Sahota in the driveway, stabbing him repeatedly. He then broke free and forced his way into Sahota’s house, knocking down Sahota’s wife with the door, according to a police account contained in court documents filed Monday.