The King County Sheriff’s Office is seeking answers and asking the public for help in what appears to be the fatal shooting of a Good Samaritan early this morning in White Center.

Around 1:15 a.m. this morning deputies were called to the 10600 block of 14th Ave. S.W., near the Coronado Springs apartment complex, for a shooting. When they arrived they found a 51-year-old man with a gunshot wound in his chest. He died at the scene shortly after medics arrived and had begun work on him.

Witnesses at the scene informed the officers that the victim had run onto the street after spotting a street robbery in progress. He apparently rushed out to help the victim of this robbery and was shot while assisting him. The suspect and the street robbery victim both fled the scene after the shot was fired.

“What it sounds like, according to witnesses, there was a robbery of an original victim, we’ll call him the first victim, and our shooting victim went out to help whoever was being mugged. We don’t know what the relationship is between those two individuals, did they know each other or if he just happened to see what was going on, we don’t know. But for his troubles he got shot, and that’s where we’re at right now,” explained Sgt. Stan Seo with the King County Sheriff’s Office.

The only description that detectives have at this time is that the suspect was a black male wearing either a red ski mask or a red bandana on his face.

A K-9 unit was deployed at the scene and followed the scent south near Ambaum where the trail went dead. The investigation is just beginning so information at this time is still coming in.

If any readers have any information that could help detectives they are encouraged to call 206-296-3311.