Man shot by police a veteran

When John LaBossiere returned from his third tour in Iraq this summer, he was an angry man, according to his father.

"I'm not saying that all of his issues were war-related," Phil LaBossiere said on Tuesday. "But it seems to me that the service just used him and spit him out."

John LaBossiere, 26, was fatally shot by a Lake Stevens police officer on Sunday after he reportedly forced his way into a home where his wife and three children were staying with friends. Investigators found one handgun near him and another on his body, according to Sgt. Robert Goetz, a spokesman for the Snohomish County Multi-Agency Response Team (SMART), which is investigating the shooting.

According to Goetz, officers were called to a "domestic disturbance" that involved a weapon at about 8 p.m. in the 10400 block of 25th Street Southeast near Lake Stevens in unincorporated Snohomish County. Two Lake Stevens officers arrived and almost immediately got into an "altercation" with LaBossiere that ended in LaBossiere's death, Goetz said.

The 23-year-old Lake Stevens officer who shot LaBossiere has been placed on paid administrative leave, pending the results of the shooting investigation by SMART, Goetz said.

Police did not release further information about the shooting on Tuesday, and LaBossiere's name was not released by the Snohomish County Medical Examiner's Office pending identification.

Phil LaBossiere, however, confirmed his son's death.

He said he believes his son was "confused and upset" by his return to the civilian world and a deteriorating marriage.

John LaBossiere grew up in Lake Stevens and, as a child, loved camping, fishing and playing soccer, according to his father. He graduated from Lake Stevens High School in 2001, just months before the Sept. 11 attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. Motivated to serve his country, LaBossiere enlisted in the Marine Corps.

Over the next four years, he married and was twice deployed to Iraq.

After receiving an honorable discharge in 2006, he returned with his wife to Snohomish County, where they lived in his parents' rental house in Everett.

He then joined the Army National Guard and was deployed to Iraq for a third time.

By the time he returned in August, it was obvious that something was wrong, his father said.

John LaBossiere had "turned into" someone his family hardly recognized, his father said.

He seemed to have lost some of his skills for coping with the nonmilitary world and had a distinct preference for being armed at all times, his father said.

"We begged him to get help, but the only person who could have made him get help is his commander," Phil LaBossiere said.

Phil LaBossiere said the military needs to do a better job of helping returning service members adjust to civilian life.

"If there's an inkling, even a tiny inkling of traumatic stress or anger problems, the service needs to pursue treatment fully before they let them back into society," Phil LaBossiere said.

Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or cclarridge@seattletimes.com