Everett, Wash.
Published: Thursday, November 20, 2008

'I blew her away,' girl's father told police

A warrant says the Marysville man drank five double vodka drinks before fatally shooting his daughter.

By Jackson Holtz, Herald Writer

 MARYSVILLE -- Richard Peters reportedly said he swallowed as many as five double vodka and Cokes before he fatally shot his 6-year-old daughter while cleaning a handgun Sunday.

"I blew her away," Peters told detectives, according to a search warrant filed Tuesday in Cascade District Court.

Peters, 42, was charged Tuesday in Everett District Court with first-degree manslaughter with a deadly weapon. He's accused of recklessly causing the death of his daughter, Stormy.

Paramedics and police rushed to the Tulalip home around 7:30 p.m. after Stormy's mother called 911 in hysterics to report that her child had been shot and wasn't breathing, the search warrant said.

Stormy, a first-grader at Quil Ceda Elementary, was taken to Seattle Children's where she died.

Detectives arrested Peters early Monday. They seized his clothes and ordered blood tests to determine Peters' blood alcohol level, according to court papers. The man appeared drunk, and told detectives he was too intoxicated to drive a car, the search warrant said.

Police found a partially empty bottle of vodka near the couch where Peters said he was sitting when the pistol was fired.

The results of the blood-alcohol test weren't available Wednesday, Snohomish County sheriff's spokeswoman Rebecca Hover said.

Peters allegedly told police he sent Stormy to get the pistol from his bedside. The man said he was holding the firearm in his left hand, near his chest. Peters told police he believed the gun wasn't loaded when he pulled the trigger, the search warrant said.

Stormy's mother told police a different story about how her husband got the gun, according to court papers. She said she gave it to her husband, and watched him remove the ammunition magazine and try to eject a live-and-chambered round by pulling the slide back, documents show. The bullet didn't come out and he fired the handgun when he tried to repeat the maneuver, according to the warrant.

After the gun went off, Stormy's mother noticed the girl slumped onto the floor, shot in the head.

Two other children, 3 and 8, were home at the time of the shooting. They weren't harmed and later were removed by Child Protective Services.

Peters is being held at the Snohomish County Jail on $250,000 bail.

Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437 or jholtz@heraldnet.com
© 2009The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA