EVERETT — An Everett father and stepson shot each other when the stepson showed up to his parents’ home with a gun while in the midst of an apparent mental health crisis, according to police reports filed in court this week.
The son, 52, spent time at a hospital before he was booked into jail. Both men are expected to survive.
The son barged into his parents’ home through a sliding glass door around 8 p.m. Tuesday on Larlin Road in the Valley View neighborhood, according to the stepfather’s report to Everett police.
The son had been having mental health issues over the past months, and his parents were trying to get help for him, court papers say.
He pointed a gun in the father’s face and ordered him “to tell the truth or he was going to kill him,” according to police. He reportedly made illogical statements, and accused his parents of signing over the deed of a house to a grandson’s ex-girlfriend.
No matter what answer they gave him, the stepson would not accept it, police wrote. He’s accused of striking his stepfather in the head with the gun and making him fall to the ground, where he kicked him in the side more than once. He pistol-whipped the mother, too, police wrote. Each time the stepfather tried to look up, the son held the gun to the back of his head and threatened to shoot, according to police.
The stepfather reportedly begged to be allowed to turn up his wife’s oxygen, because she was struggling to breathe. He replied that she wouldn’t need it, because he’d kill her, according to police.
When the stepson’s attention was directed to the mother, the stepfather fled to a bedroom. He grabbed .38-caliber revolver out of a holster — while the son continued to make death threats — and the father fired all five shots, court papers say.
He couldn’t tell if the son had fired, too. Then the step father realized he couldn’t stand. A gunshot damaged his right femur, a major injury that needed surgery.
The son showed up minutes later at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett. He was shot in his upper right arm and right armpit. Police noted it was possible the wounds were caused by a single bullet.
An officer wrote the man appeared to be “playing opossum” — asking where he was and what happened, but pretending to sleep when the officer tried to read him his constitutional rights.
Later, he claimed his stepfather stole his identity, and that he hadn’t done anything wrong. The man was booked into jail for investigation of first-degree burglary, first-degree assault and second-degree assault.
Outside of a negligent driving conviction from the early 1990s, the stepson had no criminal record. Judge Tam Bui set his bail Thursday at $250,000.
At the hospital, police wrote, the first thing the stepfather asked police was whether his stepson was OK.
Caleb Hutton: 425-339-3454; chutton@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snocaleb.
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