StoriesDecember 19, 2022

Staff report
Caution tape is strung in front of the Coffee House Apartment complex Thursday where a member of the Whitman County Regional SWAT Team shot and killed a man in a standoff Wednesday night, according to a Pullman Police Department news release.
Caution tape is strung in front of the Coffee House Apartment complex Thursday where a member of the Whitman County Regional SWAT Team shot and killed a man in a standoff Wednesday night, according to a Pullman Police Department news release.Zach Wilkinson/Daily News

The Whitman County Coroner’s Office announced today that 36-year-old Brent Lee Kopacka died during an incident at the 1000 block of SE Latah Street in Pullman on Thursday.

According to past reporting, the Pullman Police Department responded to the 1000 block of Latah Street on Wednesday evening to a report of a man allegedly threatening to kill his roommates in their apartment. Officers tried to speak to Kopacka, who barricaded himself inside his apartment, and Whitman County requested assistance from the Washington State Patrol later that night. Pullman police crisis negotiators and the Whitman County Regional SWAT Team responded, but Kopacka began to fire in his apartment. 

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Kopacka was fatally shot by a SWAT Team member early Thursday morning. He was found dead by the SWAT Team when they cleared the apartment. 

The coroner stated in a news release the cause of death was a gunshot wound and the manner of death was ruled a homicide.

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