Sultan man charged with assault for firing at deputy

Published 11:21 pm Monday, November 9, 2009

SULTAN — The man who allegedly fired a rifle at a Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Oct. 30 at the Sultan airfield before shooting himself reportedly told a roommate he’d recently lost his job and was depressed, according to court papers.

The man now is jailed, charged with first-degree assault.

“I don’t want it to be alright,” the man reportedly told the deputy after he shot himself in the stomach, according to a police affidavit filed Wednesday in Everett District Court.

The man was taken by helicopter to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the stomach. On Nov. 3, he was released from the hospital, arrested and booked into the Snohomish County Jail.

Around 3 p.m. the day of the shooting, witnesses called police reporting gunfire. They also said they saw the man allegedly shooting his dog.

A deputy investigated. He found the man with a .22-caliber rifle, alone in an abandoned hangar at the airfield.

The deputy ordered the man to put down the weapon but the man refused and fired a round, narrowly missing the deputy, the court document said. The deputy wasn’t injured.

A few moments later the deputy heard the rifle fired again and saw the man slump to the ground, the court document said.

“I should have let you shoot me,” the man reportedly told the deputy.

Investigators found the man’s dog, fatally wounded. They recovered several weapons from the man’s home, the court document said.

Police also reported they found a suicide note apparently written by the man. He allegedly wrote he was out of money and he’d planned on taking his dog out hunting, with no plan to come home.

The man remained jailed Monday in lieu of $1.5 million bail.

Jackson Holtz: 425-339-34373, jholtz@heraldnet.com.