EVERETT — The suspect says it was a death pact proposal that went horribly astray.
A 62-year-old man told police he was demonstrating how the pact he had suggested might work when he shot his girlfriend Wednesday night in south Everett, according to a police affidavit filed Friday in Everett District Court.
If one of them failed the relationship and wanted to break up, Don M. Madsen said the other would use a special painted bullet and shoot the other in the eye, the court documents said.
Madsen told police he grabbed a gun from the safe and it went off, the documents said. His 52-year-old girlfriend slumped to the floor. The Herald is not naming the victim until it can be confirmed that the family has been notified.
Madsen said he can’t remember pulling the trigger but he knew his girlfriend had been shot and he believed he was responsible, police wrote in the affidavit.
He’s been jailed on suspicion of domestic violence second-degree murder, Snohomish County sheriff Chief Kevin Prentiss said.
A judge Friday ordered the man held in lieu of $1 million bail.
Madsen called 911 just before 11 p.m. Wednesday and told dispatchers he “pulled the trigger on his girlfriend,” the documents said. He told the 911 operator he wanted to lie down next to her and die.
Deputies rushed to the small cul de sac in the 11500 block of 23rd Place W. They found the woman inside dead.
She apparently had been shot at close range in the eye, the documents said.
Madsen, a Boeing employee, was arrested.
There are no records that sheriff’s deputies were called to the house in the past, Prentiss said.
During an interview with detectives, Madsen allegedly talked about his memory of the evening’s events, detailed in court documents.
The couple had been in Granite Falls shopping for a home. They stopped on the way back to Everett to have dinner with Madsen’s daughter, her husband and his granddaughter.
When the couple returned to the Everett rental home they shared, Madsen said they argued. He said she was stressed and wasn’t feeling well. She brought up an incident from March, early on in the couple’s relationship when Madsen had looked at a girl in a restaurant, Madsen told detectives.
Detectives said neighbors overheard and saw the couple’s argument. A neighbor’s video surveillance camera captured some of the dispute, the affidavit said.
Madsen admitted that they had a history of “passionate arguments,” the documents said.
After shouting at each other Wednesday, Madsen said the couple hugged, the fight ended and “everything was better,” the documents said.
He said that’s when he brought up the fatal proposal. He took a bullet out of his safe and told his girlfriend they would be together forever. They would paint the bullet a special color and save it.
She giggled while he talked, Madsen told police.
Then he grabbed a revolver from the safe and told police he said, “And we’ll use this,” the documents said.
Madsen told police he couldn’t remember anymore, and didn’t recall pulling the trigger.
He told detectives he kept all the guns unloaded in the safe. When pressed about how the gun would have held a live round Wednesday, Madsen said he may have loaded it for a camping trip, the documents said.
The documents said Madsen is familiar with guns, was a member of a gun club at work and had taught gun classes.
Detectives reported Madsen called himself names for not following basic gun safety rules, which dictate to always assume firearms may be loaded.
Court documents show that Madsen had been separated from his wife of seven years since February 2007. The ex-wife filed for separation in May in Snohomish County Superior Court. She lives in Oregon, according to the court documents.
The separation decree indicates he was awarded possession of an extensive gun collection.
Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437 or jholtz@heraldnet.com.
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