By Jim Haley and Karl Schweizer
Herald Writers
GRANITE FALLS — Martin E. Frank was no angel. He had a hot temper and didn’t like to back down in an argument. But he worked hard for his family and didn’t deserve to die in a senseless shooting, neighbors said Thursday.
The 40-year-old Granite Falls man died Wednesday in a confrontation with a neighbor with whom he had a long-running verbal feud, police said.
That neighbor, Ken C. Jensen, 57, appeared Thursday in court, where judge Elizabeth Graham ordered him held on $250,000 cash bail on suspicion of second-degree murder.
The two men were involved in a verbal dispute in front of Frank’s house, 750 E. Stanley St., where his wife, Gia Frank, runs a day care center, deputy prosecutor Dave Hiltner told the judge. Children were present at the day care center at the time of the shooting.
Hiltner said in court that the men first met in the street, and Jensen apparently made a disparaging comment about Frank seeing a psychiatrist. A few minutes later, Jensen emerged from a neighbor’s home, and there was a second contact.
Frank put his hand on Jensen’s bicycle, and that was when Jensen shot him with a .357 Magnum pistol he carried in a bag, Hiltner said. Frank was shot once in the abdomen and died soon after being taken by helicopter to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Hiltner said.
It was a sudden end to what appeared to be a promising life for Frank, his wife and their two teen-age children.
Neighbors Dave and Donna Bunkelman became friends with the Franks shortly after the Franks moved into their neighborhood 14 years ago. That friendship was strengthened a year later, Dave Bunkelman said, when the Franks helped Donna watch her children and operate her day care after he suffered an aneurysm that laid him up for three months.
"Frank had a shield in front of him. Just a few people got behind that wall. But if you were his friend, he’d do anything for you," Donna Bunkelman said.
Frank, a talented woodworker, created an arbor and a wooden bench for the Bunkelmans, as well as numerous wooden animals and other pieces of furniture for friends and family, Dave Bunkelman said.
Frank felt it was important for Gia to be home with their two children, so he supported her day care business, Donna Bunkelman said.
He had recently redone his backyard, adding a new play set and building a set of parallel bars for the children at the day care. He and his wife remodeled their house, built a garage and were in the middle of making other improvements, Donna Bunkelman said.
"He was finishing up a pond. All he had to do was finish putting rocks on the bottom and around the top, and he would have been done. That’s what he was doing when he was shot," she said.
Donna Bunkelman said Frank was "no angel" and could be "as hotheaded as the next guy," but said the shooting was unnecessary.
"Why didn’t he shoot him in the kneecap?" she said. "That was the most senseless crime."
You can call Herald Writer Karl Schweizer at 425-339-3452
or send e-mail to schweizer@heraldnet.com.
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