EVERETT — The men were friends.
But a New Year’s Eve dispute over $50 in firewood sent one to the hospital with a skull fracture and the other to jail, according to police reports filed in court this week.
A 56-year-old Everett man stayed off-and-on at a home in the 9700 block of 27th Avenue SE. The friend was there to drop off his girlfriend, he told police.
He was in his truck playing on his phone when the Everett man pulled in front of him in his red Pontiac. They both got out of their cars. The friend reported he saw alcohol in the Everett man’s hand. The man reportedly yelled at him about owing him cash for firewood.
The friend told authorities the man then hit him in the head with a 2-foot-long metal object.
The Everett man reportedly got in his car and drove away, the wounded man told police, calling the suspect “nonchalant.”
The injured man drove to his father’s home. His father then drove him to Swedish Mill Creek Campus. When police arrived around 9:40 p.m. on Dec. 31, the wounded man was holding a towel to his head as he bled “extensively,” an officer wrote in the report.
He later had to be transported to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with a skull fracture and potential bleeding in his brain, a nurse reportedly told police.
The wounded man told police the suspect may have gone to a residence near Smokey Point and described how to get there: Get off the exit, cross the train tracks, take a right, then a left.
Police found the suspect near there. In his red Pontiac, an officer reported seeing a steel tool, possibly a large wrench. It was about 2 feet long, according to the police report.
In a police interview, the Everett man argued it was self-defense.
The 56-year-old told police he and the friend had argued earlier in the day over the firewood money before leaving to buy alcohol. When he returned, the suspect claimed the friend confronted him with a hammer. So he said he “bear hugged” him, according to the police report. In the suspect’s account, they fell and the other man hit his head on his truck’s rear bumper.
The suspect told police he helped the man up, but left when the injured man yelled about sending him to prison.
Authorities say the suspect’s story didn’t make sense.
The suspect reported the struggle happened at the front of the truck. But there was no explanation for how the man could have hit his head on the rear bumper.
And the suspect reported the man hit the front of his head. But the injuries were on the top of his head, police say.
An officer told the Everett man that the injuries didn’t match this story. The officer asked if he hit the injured man with an object. He said he didn’t and once again claimed he was defending himself.
The Everett man was arrested for investigation of first-degree assault.
He was in custody at the Snohomish County Jail on Wednesday with bail set at $25,000.
Jake Goldstein-Street: 425-339-3439; jake.goldstein-street@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @GoldsteinStreet.
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