VERLOT — Snohomish County deputies tried to calm down Daniel Wasilchen the day he died last summer.
“Drop the gun.”
“We don’t need to do this.”
“Nobody needs to get hurt.”
Deputy Greg Rasar described the incident and the phrases he said that day to investigators with the Snohomish County Multiple Agency Response Team.
The interview with Rasar is part of the nearly 400-page death investigation into the May 29, 2009, shooting. It was released Friday under a public records request.
Wasilchen, 44, reportedly was upset after a Snohomish County noxious weed official had visited his property. There was an argument and Wasilchen reportedly shoved the county worker, H.R. “Sonny” Gohrman.
Deputies were called. Wasilchen got a handgun and aimed it at responding deputies and the county weed control officials, the investigation determined. He also reportedly failed to follow the deputies’ demands to drop the gun.
Rasar fired three times, killing Wasilchen. The death was one of six involving police in Snohomish County in 2009.
Snohomish County prosecutor Mark Roe still is reviewing the investigation and has not ruled whether the May 29 killing was legally justified.
Rasar and his partner, reserve deputy Tim King, have returned to patrol duty.
Wasilchen’s family in November filed a $5 million claim for damages against Snohomish County and Gohrman, the county’s noxious weed abatement coordinator.
Wasilchen’s family say they hold no ill will toward the deputies. They say the people most responsible are in county government, including Gohrman, the weed inspector.
Gohrman said he’d noticed knot weed, a type of noxious weed, on Wasilchen’s property a few weeks prior to the deadly incident. He left a business card for Wasilchen, asking him to call.
Wasilchen’s girlfriend told investigators that he was angry about the business card. Wasilchen believed a neighbor may have reported him to the county, the girlfriend told police.
The afternoon of the shooting, Wasilchen was visiting with relatives in his driveway when Gohrman stopped by.
Wasilchen asked Gohrman to leave three times, Wasilchen’s stepfather, Marvin Verlinde, said. Verlinde, 65, was with Wasilchen that afternoon. He left prior to the shooting.
The family’s claim accuses Gohrman of trespassing, being hostile and maliciously and deliberately violating Wasilchen’s constitutional rights.
“It never ever, ever, ever, should have gotten to the point that it came to,” said Raymond Dearie, the lawyer representing the family.
Gohrman left and drove toward Granite Falls to a spot where he could use a cell phone to call 911. Gohrman reportedly couldn’t remember Wasilchen’s street address and offered to lead the deputies to the home.
Rasar, the deputy who fired the fatal shots, told investigators he believed he only would be needed to stand by while the county workers took care of their business. But when they reached Wasilchen’s home, the former Boeing crane operator ducked inside and came out with a handgun.
The deputies told investigators they both immediately recognized Wasilchen. They’d spoken to him casually several times during patrols and remembered him to be friendly.
That afternoon, Wasilchen approached with a handgun leveled in their direction, the reports said.
The deputies ordered him to put the gun down and he responded by telling the deputies to drop their weapons.
At one point during the short standoff, reserve deputy King got onto his hands and knees. He told investigators he was looking for a way to wound Wasilchen by shooting him in the legs, if gunfire became necessary. There wasn’t an opportunity for a clear shot, he told investigators.
“Our maneuvering was getting us nowhere,” Rasar told investigators. “I believed that the suspect was going to shoot me, my partner or one of the county employees. I feared someone would be killed.”
Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437, jholtz@heraldnet.com.
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