EVERETT — The principal at a local elementary school and a nearby neighbor were terrified by an Everett man’s erratic and threatening behavior earlier this month.
Both say during their encounters with Robert Quaring he threatened to shoot them. He didn’t brandish a gun but used his hand to make like he had a pistol, pointing it at both women’s faces. Police said the women were clearly shaken by the man’s actions.
Prosecutors earlier this month charged Quaring, 18, with first-degree burglary. He pleaded not guilty to the charge. Quaring was being held on $100,000 bail. He doesn’t have any prior felony convictions although he was convicted last month of misdemeanor shoplifting.
The Nov. 4 incident happened before the start of classes at Hawthorne Elementary School in Everett. Staff there noticed a man wandering the halls, mumbling to himself. They alerted the principal. At one point, the man was holding the front door open, greeting people as they entered.
The principal confronted the man, who said he was looking for his brother. The principal brought him to the office while she checked the name he had given her.
She told the man she didn’t find a student by that name in the system. He reportedly became irate and demanded she check the computer again, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Tobin Darrow wrote in court papers. The principal told Quaring to leave.
He reportedly removed his hand from his pocket, shaped his fingers like a pistol and pointed at the principal. He allegedly yelled, “Bang, bang, bang.”
Quaring smirked at the woman and left. The principal was concerned that he might return and locked down the school.
Quaring reportedly knocked on the front door of a nearby house about 10 minutes later. A woman was inside, getting her 9-year-old daughter ready for school. Quaring allegedly tried to force open the front door, saying “I’ve got a gun you (expletive). You let me in right now or I’m going to shoot you.”
The woman said Quaring thrust his hand through the door, held it up like a gun and pointed it at her. She was able to keep the man from pushing the door open. He reportedly told the woman he was “just kidding.” When he reached to retrieve his stocking hat on the ground, she was able to shut the door.
Her daughter was by her side during the incident.
Police found Quaring in the bed of a pickup truck about a block from the woman’s house. Both women identified Quaring as the suspect in their encounters.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com.
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