KENT -- A Federal Way police officer was fatally shot

Saturday morning after a man he was chasing grabbed the officer's

gun and shot him with it.

Officer Patrick Maher, 46, died Saturday afternoon at Harborview

Medical Center, where he was taken for treatment after the shooting

in Kent.

Kent police jailed a 28-year-old suspect for investigation of

assault and attempted murder, later upgraded to investigation of

murder.

Kent police were investigating. Officer Paul Petersen of Kent police said the officer arrived at

an AM-PM market on the north boundary of Federal Way and saw three

people fighting -- a 28-year-old man, his 28-year-old ex-girlfriend

and his 24-year-old brother.

The 28-year-old man turned and ran across 272nd Street into the

city of Kent, past a small strip mall and tried to climb over the

fence, Petersen said, while the officer and others chased him.

"The officer followed by the other two caught up with the guy,

pulled him off the chain link fence and a scuffle began," Petersen

said.

"Somehow the suspect got the officer's weapon," he said, and

used it to threaten his brother and ex-girfriend.

"In an apparent attempt to disarm the suspect, the officer

lunged in and was shot in the abdomen below the edge of his vest,"

Petersen said.