Cops: Man Wanted for 'Random' Murders Killed Himself

UPDATE Jan 24, 2023 6:54 PM CST

A 21-year-old man wanted in the random killing of three people at a convenience store in Yakima, Washington, early Tuesday shot and killed himself as officers approached him behind some warehouses several hours later, authorities said. Yakima Police Chief Matt Murray said at a news conference that authorities had received a 911 call Tuesday afternoon as to the man’s whereabouts the AP reports. As officers approached the suspect’s location, they heard gunshots, and paramedics responded to treat him, Murray said. Police did not use force and no officers were wounded, the chief said.

Jan 24, 2023 4:43 PM CST

Authorities closed portions of several roads Tuesday as they searched for the suspect in an apparently random shooting at a Yakima, Washington, convenience store that left three people dead. Yakima police Chief Matt Murray said officers found the victims dead at the Circle K convenience store about 3:30am. Murray said police have security camera video and eyewitnesses from the store. "There was no apparent conflict between the parties," Murray said during a news conference. "The male just walked in and started shooting." Police did not immediately release additional details about the victims but said the suspect—identified as 21-year-old Jarid Haddock, of Yakima County—should be considered armed and dangerous.

He drove away in a gray or silver sedan, possibly a Chrysler 200, heading toward the suburban community of Moxee on Highway 24, Murray said, "This is a dangerous person and it’s random, so there is a danger to the community," Murray said. "We don’t have a motive." Police converged on a home across a road from a storage facility on the outskirts of the city of nearly 100,000 residents about 140 miles southeast of Seattle, the AP reports. Court records listed a home in the area as a previously known address for Haddock.

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Haddock appeared to have little criminal history. He was arrested in March 2020 after police saw him in a car that had been stolen from a woman who had left it running; he ran from officers who pulled him over, according to charging documents filed in Yakima County Superior Court, and he reported being homeless. He successfully completed a diversion program, despite twice violating its terms by using methamphetamine or heroin, and the charges were dismissed in December 2021. (More Washington state stories.)