Granite Falls man reportedly planned to ambush police

GRANITE FALLS — A Granite Falls man was behind bars this week after he reportedly planned to ambush police officers but passed out before they arrived.

The man, 71, called 911 on May 27 from his home, which is off of the Mountain Loop Highway between Granite Falls and Verlot.

He repor

tedly told a dispatcher that he had shot his wife. When Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies and Granite Falls police arrived, they found his wife safe next door. She had not seen her husband in several hours.

When police went to the man’s house, they found him unconscious at a hidden spot on the deck, according to a police affidavit filed in Snohomish County Superior Court.

The man had a loaded double-barrel shotgun inches from his hand, with another loaded shotgun on a table about eight feet away. He also was wearing a vest loaded with shotgun ammunition, according to the affidavit.

When deputies woke the man, he allegedly told them he wanted to “kill all the cops before I died” because he did not like police. The man appeared to be severely intoxicated, deputies wrote in their report.

Deputies felt the man might have been planning to ambush police with the intention of shooting any officers who responded to his 911 call, they wrote.

The man was taken to a local hospital for an evaluation before being booked into Snohomish County Jail.

He was being held Wednesday for investigation of first-degree attempted assault. Bail was set at $500,000.

Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.

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