Police officers shot dead the gunman after a seemingly attempted attack on a detention center for migrants in the northwestern US city of Tacoma. The 69-year-old had set a car on fire and tried to light a large propane container, said the local police.
The police called to the scene shot the man who was identified as Willem Van Spronsen. In addition to a rifle, he also had torches and a backpack with him. Van Spronsen was convicted of resistance to state violence during a protest last year in the same detention center.
Deportations planned in large style
Migration issues have dominated the political debate in the US for months. US Vice President Mike Pence had spoken of a „crisis“ following a visit to a crowded detention center on the US border with Mexico on Friday. In many US cities people went on Friday and on the weekend against planned large raids against unregistered immigrants on the street.
The GEO Group, which operates the Tacoma detention center on behalf of the US Department of Homeland Security, said the reports of overcrowding and detention of unaccompanied minors in other detention centers jeopardized its personnel.
