A Seattle man accused of running over a woman who saved a pet duck was charged Thursday with an assortment of crimes.
Kenneth Blaine Quinlan, 35, was being held in the Snohomish County Jail in lieu of $25,000 bail.
Deputy prosecutor Paul Stern charged Quinlan with vehicular assault for allegedly running over and seriously injuring a Lynnwood pet store employee who saved the duck on March 23.
Quinlan also was charged with hit-and-run with an injury connected to the pet store worker, and two counts of third-degree assault.
One assault charge stems from a fight with the security guard after the store employee thought he saw Quinlan shoplift a $250 iPod speaker system. The other charge was for Quinlan’s allegedly backing into the duck’s owner, his girlfriend, 39.
The girlfriend had been in the Petco store on 196th Street SW with her pet duck, Mr. Peepers, Stern wrote in court papers. Quinlan went into another nearby store, where the alleged shoplifting occurred.
The security guard followed Quinlan to the Petco store, where the defendant got the car keys from his girlfriend and tried to escape. He allegedly backed up and struck his girlfriend, Stern wrote. She dropped the duck.
A Petco employee saw what was happening and “ran to save Peepers from the front of the car” just as Quinlan drove forward, Stern said.
The vehicle ran over the woman, inflicting serious injuries including broken bones in her foot and ankle, Stern said.
According to charging papers, Quinlan continued driving and didn’t stop until his vehicle struck another car on 196th Street SW.
Quinlan is a convicted felon. A former heroin addict, he told officers that he’d just received a dose of methadone at a Lynnwood clinic and had used cocaine a few days earlier, according to court papers.
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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