In the pre-dawn hours of February 23, 2012, Washington State Patrol Trooper Tony Vian Radulescu, a 44-year-old Caucasian male, was shot and killed during a traffic stop on State Route 16 in Gorst, Washington. A 16-year veteran of the patrol, Radulescu had radioed in the location and license plate of the pickup truck he had pulled over shortly before 1:00 a.m. When he failed to respond to dispatch, a Kitsap County sheriff's deputy was sent to check on him and discovered the trooper lying wounded near his patrol car. He was transported to a medical center in Tacoma, where he was pronounced dead from a gunshot wound.
The investigation quickly led to the identification of the suspect as Joshua Jearl Blake, a 28-year-old convicted felon. The pickup truck Radulescu had stopped was found abandoned a few hours after the shooting. Later that day, as a SWAT team approached a residence in Port Orchard where Blake was hiding, he took his own life. Investigators determined that Blake had shot Radulescu as the trooper approached the passenger side of the truck.
In the aftermath of the shooting, several individuals were arrested for aiding Blake. His ex-girlfriend was taken into custody and accused of actively trying to help him escape the area. A female passenger in the truck at the time of the shooting was also arrested and later sentenced to a year in prison on charges connected to the incident. Others were also convicted of rendering criminal assistance for lying to investigators or helping Blake during his brief time on the run. The motive for the initial traffic stop remains unclear as Radulescu had no dashboard camera and was not wearing a body camera.
