Seattle police officers in an April 17 operation fatally shot a man who thought he was meeting up with two minor girls at a Tukwila hotel. The suspect has now been identified as a retired Navy doctor.
The shooting happened during an undercover Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce operation on April 17. The suspect, identified as 67-year-old Bruce Meneley, believed he was meeting two young girls, ages 11 and 7, at a hotel on Southcenter Parkway.
One of the officers quickly reached for Mr. Meneley’s gun and it was fired. Two other officers then fired their guns at the suspect. Mr. Meneley died at the scene from multiple gunshot wounds.
According to the police, one of the officers sustained a graze wound and has received treatment for a minor injury.
“We take these incidents seriously and understand transparency is key. This is SPD’s [Seattle Police Department] first officer-involved shooting in eight months and it is the first officer-involved shooting ending with a death in 23 months,” the police said.
U.S. military data obtained by FOX 13 News indicates that Mr. Meneley enlisted in 1975 and retired in 2016, serving in various duty stations. His final duty station was at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, with the Defense Medical Readiness Training Institute.
The Seattle Police Department said that internet crimes against children in Washington state have risen 250 percent since 2019.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children stated that its CyberTipline received 36,210,368 reports of suspected child sexual exploitation last year, marking an increase from 29,397,681 in 2021, according to the department.
“For our officers, these situations are dangerous, unpredictable and can escalate rapidly, as seen in the video we’ve shared,” the police stated. “Any time there is a loss of life, it is devastating to our community.”
Earlier this year, a former Air Force special agent was sentenced to 10 years in prison for sexually molesting a young child left in his care at a military base, according to the Department of Justice.
