As shots rang out, some citizens tried to step in

NEWCASTLE -- Dozens of witnesses looked on in horror as a screaming, naked man shot a fallen Newcastle police officer repeatedly in the head and back.

A few got involved.

Tammy Porter was in Newcastle from her home in Richland, visiting friends last weekend. Shortly before Saturday's fatal shooting of officer Richard Herzog in Newcastle, she and Chris Maddocks wrapped up a fun day at Seattle's Fremont Summer Solstice Parade, where it's normal to see naked men on bicycles streaking through crowds.

``I really didn't know what was going on,'' Porter recalled thinking when her friend pulled to the side of Coal Creek Parkway on their way back to his house. ``I just saw this naked man running around. At first I thought it was funny because of where we just came from.''

The naked man shouted obscenities and pounded the hoods of cars and a nearby empty Metro bus, which also had stopped in the traffic.

Porter said the man at times shouted incoherently about white oppression of African Americans. A white, blond-haired woman ran after him, calling him by name, but he ignored her.

``He was definitely under the influence of something,'' Porter said.

Within a few minutes, Deputy Herzog arrived on the scene and confronted the man, which seemed to agitated him more. As the man fought with Herzog, the officer went for his pepper spray, but the man barely flinched after several sprays to his face, Porter said.

The man somehow managed to release Herzog's gun from his holster, and it hit the ground. That's when several bystanders rushed the naked man and tried to overpower him.

``But he just blew them off like water on a duck's tail,'' said Porter.

Knowing the situation had risen to a deadly level, Porter -- a long-time gun owner and wife of a gunsmith -- scrambled to the trunk of her car and pulled out her .40-caliber Browning semiautomatic pistol. She trained it on the naked man, but couldn't get a clear shot.

Seconds later, the naked man started firing, hitting Herzog several times in his back, which was protected by a bullet-proof vest. Herzog lost his footing and fell. The man then fired three times into the back of Herzog's head and then ran toward a nearby apartment building.

Porter rushed to the officer's side. But it was too late. A former volunteer firefighter in the Tri-Cities area, Porter said she could find no signs of life. Herzog had been hit at close range, and blood was pooling around his body. She grabbed the microphone on Herzog's portable radio.

``Officer down!'' she stated clearly, keying the mic. ``Shots fired. Send help.''

``There was no doubt that the officer was deceased,'' she later said. ``I was angry because of what that idiot did. Before he fired, I could see the fear in the officer's face, and I knew what was going to happen.''

Just as Porter bent over Herzog's body, she said, a car carrying a man and a woman pulled up next to her, apparently to shield her and the officer from the fleeing gunman.

His hands firmly gripped around a .38-caliber handgun, the man driving the car jumped out and sprinted after the suspect.

Porter never got the motorist's name.

Police on the scene shortly after the shooting were overcome with grief. Some were amazed by the action taken by regular citizens.

``That is a tremendous statement that people will step forward in a crisis and help us out,'' Bellevue police officer Marcia Harnden said. ``It was a heroic situation.''

Noel Brady can be reached at noel.brady@eastsidejournal.com or 425-453-4252.