SEATTLE — A Washington man accused of fatally shooting two convicted sex offenders on the Olympic Peninsula indicated he didn’t plan to stop with two, a prosecutor told a judge on Monday.
Patrick Drum, 34, of Sequim, remained jailed without bail after a Clallam County Superior Court hearing.
A signed note Drum left in a rental car said he hated sex offenders and “it had to be done,” the county sheriff said Monday.
Drum was arrested Sunday for investigation of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary in the weekend deaths of Gary Lee Blanton Jr., 28, and Jerry W. Ray, 56.
The arrested man “had stated his intent not to stop with two victims but to continue as long as he could until he was stopped by law enforcement,” County Prosecutor Deb Kelly told Judge George Wood, according to the Peninsula Daily News.
A probable cause statement from the sheriff’s office said “Drum also stated that he had intended on driving to Jefferson County where another sex offender resided, with the intent to kill him, too.”
“Frankly, I’m concerned about the vigilante aspect,” Kelly said.
Kelly told the judge she plans to seek charges of aggravated first-degree murder.
Drum, who yawned repeatedly during the hearing, told the judge he wanted to defend himself.
An aggravated murder conviction would carry the possibility of a death sentence. Wood appointed a lawyer to represent Drum.
A bail hearing was scheduled Wednesday.
A convicted felon, Drum is known to police in Sequim and Port Angeles as well as Clallam County deputies, Sheriff Bill Benedict said. The man served four years for drug-related offenses at the state penitentiary in Walla Walla, the newspaper reported.
At a news conference, the sheriff warned anyone considering continuing the violence.
“Anyone who is interested in taking things into their own hands and deciding to attack sex offenders in the community, we will deal with them very strongly,” Benedict said.
Investigators say Drum shot Blanton on Saturday night at a home Drum was renting near Sequim. Blanton was renting a room in the home.
Drum then drove to Ray’s home a few miles away where Ray was killed early Sunday morning, Benedict said.
For some reason, authorities say, Drum abandoned a rental car he had been driving and was seen on foot in the remote area of the northern Olympic Peninsula. Reports of a suspicious man in the area Sunday led deputies to respond. They found the car and the note inside that led to the victims and identified Drum as a suspect.
The note was “apologizing to police for what he had done,” Benedict said, and it said, “It had to be done.”
Drum was arrested after a manhunt involving about 65 law enforcement officers from multiple agencies. Dozens of officers responded to the area, and Drum was tracked down by a dog team and flushed out of a wooded area by a Customs and Border Protection helicopter Sunday.
Drum knew both men were sex offenders. Both were shot multiple times, the sheriff said, adding Drum was armed with a 9mm pistol when he was arrested.
“He took full responsibility for ‘taking care of some problems,’” Benedict said Monday.
The sheriff’s office online record of sex offenders shows Blanton was convicted in November 2001 of third-degree rape. Ray was convicted in August 2002 of child rape.
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