NCW SIU closes investigation into Troy McMaster shooting

The North Central Washington Special Investigations Unit has completed a months-long investigation into the shooting.

Prosecutors and community officials have been informed of the SIU's findings, according to a news release from the Douglas County Sheriff's Office Wednesday afternoon.

The shooting in question occurred on December 17, 2023. Troy McMaster, 54, was reportedly in severe mental distress when he crashed headfirst into the VA Ambulance in Wenatchee, causing approximately $25,000 in damage. McMaster also fired several shots, according to police.

He then fled to East Wenatchee in his battered pickup truck. As KPQ reported in late December, McMaster was “shot multiple times. [after] He stopped his vehicle and confronted officers with a weapon” in the 2500 block of Eastmont Extension.

McMaster was taken into custody and was treated initially at the Wenatchee campus of Confluence Health Hospital and then at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

The charges against McMaster included assault with a deadly weapon and malicious destruction of property. The former is self-explanatory. The latter roughly translates to “vandalism” or “damage to property” in Washington legal jargon. Because McMaster amassed damages in excess of $5,000, he was charged with malicious destruction of property in the first degree.

The police officers with whom he had clashed were suspended.

But the threat McMaster posed to his fellow citizens (and himself) was negligible; that was the assessment of the psychiatric hospitals at the time. He was released on parole at the end of January.

After the SIU completes its investigation, it will be submitted to the Douglas County District Attorney for review.

McMaster pleaded guilty to a lesser charge on July 15. His sentencing is scheduled for September 4.