White Center, WA: Never Bring A Hatchet to a Gunfight

3/13/16 Fox Channel 13:

WHITE CENTER, Wash. -- A  customer with a concealed carry permit shot and killed a masked man wielding a hatchet inside a convenience store Sunday morning, according to investigators.

On Monday, the King County Medical Examiner's Office identified the suspect as Steven Blacktongue, 43.

The King County Sheriff's Office was called to a 7-Eleven on 8th Avenue South, near White Center, at 5:45 a.m.

The store clerk says the masked man entered the store and immediately started swinging a hatchet toward a customer -- then he turned his sights on the clerk.

Witnesses told deputies the attacker remained silent during the entire ordeal.

The clerk suffered minor injuries to his stomach, but before more damage could be done, the customer fired his pistol and hit the suspect.

Medics arrived shortly after and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

King County Sheriff's investigators say the customer who shot the man appears to have done nothing wrong, and they are happy he was there to intervene.