Tacoma police shot and killed an armed man after he threw Molotov cocktails at an Immigration Customs Enforcement facility Saturday.
Willem Van Spronsen, 69, appeared outside of the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, early in the morning carrying a rifle and “incendiary devices,” according to the Seattle Times.
Police say Van Spronsen lit flammable objects on fire and hurled them at the building and cars. One car caught fire. He also aimed to hit a propane tank but was unsuccessful.
An ICE official called the police after seeing the rifle. Police reported shots fired, but it was unclear who fired first or if Van Spronsen fired at all, but he was killed.
ICE said in a statement to Fox News that no employees “were harmed nor involved in this tragic incident.”
“He was throwing these items at the building in an effort to set it on fire. It didn’t work, it’s a concrete building,” Officer Loretta Cool with the Tacoma Police Department told Komo News.
Right now: Big police presence outside the home of the man shot and killed by Tacoma police after throwing Molotov-cocktails at the Northwest Detention Center @komonews #KOMONews pic.twitter.com/TCDFaLUmbK
— Tammy Mutasa (@TammyKOMO) July 14, 2019
Last year, Van Spronsen was arrested for assaulting a police officer during a chaotic protest at the facility. Deb Bartley, a friend of Van Spronsen, told the Seattle Times, “He was ready to end it. I think this was a suicide. But then he was able to kind of do it in a way that spoke to his political beliefs. I know he went down there knowing he was going to die.”
The attack at an ICE facility came a day after protesters at an Aurora, Colorado ICE facility removed the American flag and replaced it with a Mexican one. ICE is expected to carry out mass raids in major cities across the country on Sunday.
