Arlington families question deputy’s response after stray gunfire peppers homes

Published 3:40 pm Wednesday, July 15, 2026

ARLINGTON — Families in a rural Arlington neighborhood are questioning the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office’s response after stray bullets peppered their homes for nearly three minutes on Saturday afternoon.

They soon learned that repeated rounds of gunfire that hit their property came from at least one person target shooting nearby. A deputy’s alleged response to the terrifying incident is now under review by the sheriff’s office, a spokesperson said.

The Coker and Hand families said they spend much of their time together at the end of a cul-de-sac on 114th Drive Northeast outside Arlington. Their young kids roam between yards, jumping on the trampoline and playing on a playset.

Saturday was no different.

As the Hand family set up for a child’s birthday party, their idyllic neighborhood took on the feeling of a warzone.

Rounds of sporadic gunfire can be heard in home security video shared by the families.

At first, they think it’s just belated Independence Day fireworks, but then the kids and parents are seen running for safety as the crack of bullets hitting the side of homes and shattering glass can be heard just before 2:45 p.m.

“The shooting didn’t stop for so long, I mean, it was just going and going and going,” Sarah Coker told The Daily Herald on Tuesday.

Timothy Hand said he served two tours in Iraq, but he never expected this sort of shooting outside his own home.

“That I signed up for, I knew what I was getting into,” he said “My kids did not.”

On Tuesday, bullet holes are visible in the playset and trampoline where the kids usually play carefree. The Cokers backyard fence was shot through and they have a half-dozen bullet markings in the side of their home. Their sliding glass door was shot out. No one was hurt, but not without a near-miss.

“As we’re walking through the kitchen, a bullet goes through the sliding glass door and hits the computer in front of me — about a foot-and-a-half in front of me,” said Justin Coker, who said he works as a police officer in Snohomish County.

Deputies were called and responded to the gunfire. Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Courtney O’Keefe said deputies discovered neighbors through the woods on 123rd Avenue Northeast were shooting at a target, but “were missing the target or using a nonsufficient backstop,” when they struck the homes.

Shooting is legal in this part of unincorporated Snohomish County, according to county code, but O’Keefe said deputies believe the shooting was reckless and deputies are referring charges for reckless endangerment. She said the investigation remains active as of Wednesday morning.

The families said this wasn’t the response they got from a deputy who came to their home on Saturday afternoon.

They allege the deputy was dismissive of their safety and their concerns. They said deputies took a half hour to get to their homes, O’Keefe confirmed deputies arrived to investigate the damage after 3:15 p.m., about 30 minutes after the call to 911.

Once the deputy arrived, the families said he didn’t ask if anyone was hurt or check on the children who were crying behind a couch inside the Hand’s home. O’Keefe said the deputy made contact with all involved adults and that there was no reported injuries.

The deputy allegedly took written statements, but refused to look at the home security video and asked the Cokers repeatedly if they wanted to keep it a civil matter, while telling them no one would be going to jail that day, the families said.

O’Keefe said the deputy did watch the video at the scene with the family. She said the deputy asked one question related to a “civil issue,” but said the deputy followed up by “informing the reporting party he was going to be moving forward with referring criminal charges for reckless endangerment on the individuals who were shooting.”

The families tell a different story.

“There was no reassurance from him that a message got delivered to them, that they, you know, agreed to not shoot anymore, any of that stuff, I mean nothing,” Justin Coker said.

He said the deputy collected the one bullet that shattered the glass door and hit the family’s computer, but they are still removing bullets from their house and yard that were left behind. O’Keefe said the deputy collected the only bullet that was accessible on scene.

“The next morning, my son came down and asked, ‘Are we gonna have bullets flying our way today?’ Because they didn’t take their guns, they didn’t take anyone to jail,” Justin Coker said. “There was nothing done for us.”

The families said it felt like the deputy simply didn’t care. Now they are left wondering who they can trust in an emergency.

“The feeling of being unsafe from neighboring properties is equal as the feeling of being unsafe with the local law enforcement,” Miranda Hand said. “Like who do I go to? I feel more safe going to talk to the people that shot.”

The group said they reached out to the sheriff’s office to share their concerns, but hadn’t heard back.

O’Keefe said the sheriff’s office is aware of a complaint submitted about the response.

“We are following our standard procedures for reviewing and investigating the matter,” she said in an email.

In the meantime, the families said they are left wondering if they are safe in their own homes.

They are now teaching their kids to duck and run if they hear anything that sounds like gunshots again.

“There’s a long road ahead of us of trying to figure out how to recover this situation with our kids and all of us living here,” Sarah Coker said. “We don’t rent, we can’t move out.”

Ian Davis-Leonard: 425-339-3097; ian.davis-leonard@heraldnet.com