Charges: He pulled the trigger, but the gun didn’t fire

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, December 17, 2019

MONROE — A man held up his ex-girlfriend at gunpoint for three hours at Al Borlin Park in Monroe earlier this fall, prosecutors allege.

When he pulled the trigger of the 9mm pistol, though, there was no gunshot, according to charging papers filed Dec. 6 in Snohomish County Superior Court.

Unknown to him, the person who gave him the gun reportedly had taken out the firing pin, fearing he might do something, the court papers say.

Prosecutors charged the 32-year-old Everett man with harassment and unlawful possession of a firearm.

On Halloween, he allegedly had accused his ex-girlfriend of stealing and damaging his vehicle. Pressed up against a wall at the back of a bridge, the woman reported that when the suspect pulled the trigger, she thought “she was going to get shot over something she had nothing to do with,” according to charging papers.

After the gun didn’t fire, the two remained at the park for another hour, the woman reported. She told police she got away when she used a bathroom break as a ruse. Once she distanced herself, she ran.

The woman reportedly didn’t see the man again that night, but received several phone calls. In one call, he allegedly told her, “You’ll be dead by Monday.”

Monroe police arrested the man on Nov. 15 at a camper parked in Monroe. They found a shotgun, but not the handgun described by witnesses. The man said he threw it away in a trash can, after learning the firing pin had been taken out.

He remained in the Snohomish County Jail Monday with bail set at $15,000. Prosecutors noted that he had been convicted of domestic violence crimes 12 times.

Zachariah Bryan: 425-339-3431; zbryan@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @zachariahtb.