As word spread of the Monday passing of Pierce County Sheriff’s Deputy Kent Mundell — one of two deputies shot Dec. 21 in Eatonville — emotions spilled forth on the Facebook page set up to pay tribute to the four Lakewood police officers killed on Nov. 29.

 ”When is this maddness going to stop? This needs to end,” wrote Courtney Bell. “Its not safe anywhere anymore. i hope that the new year starts off much better and put an end to this killing…” 

 ”I cried,” wrote Erin Casey. “Tell me when does it end…”

 ”Damn it, Damn, Damn it. Too many Officers and Deputies have been killed in W WA in less than 8 weeks,” wrote Marv Bird. “My thoughts and prayers go out to the the family as well as the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department. Deputy Walter Kent Mundell Jr. will be greatly missed as will all the others we have lost in W WA recently…”

  Mundell’s death is Washington’s “seventh law enforcement line-of-duty death this year, and sixth fatal shooting since Oct. 31,” as Seattlepi.com reporter Casey McNerthney put it. Read his full story here. A memorial page has already been set up for Deputy Mundell at the Officer Down Memorial Page web site.

  Pierce County’s Department of Emergency Management described last Monday’s shootings in this press release issued that day:

At approximately 8:48 p.m., two Pierce County Sheriff’s deputies responding to an unwanted guest call at a home in the Eatonville area were shot. The initial call for assistance came from a man who was fighting with his brother. The officers were invited into the house. One of the occupants went upstairs, armed himself, and fired shots at the deputies from upstairs. Both deputies were seriously wounded, but managed to return fire, killing the suspect.

One deputy was airlifted to Harborview, and the other transported to Madigan…