EVERETT — Police captured a man in Tacoma late Saturday afternoon who called himself “the son of Satan” — a day after he walked away from Western State Hospital.
Authorities were concerned the Everett man, convicted arsonist Jonathan D. Wilson, 26, would head toward Snohomish County.
He had previously threatened his Everett community corrections officer multiple times, said Department of Corrections spokesman Chad Lewis.
He also threatened a mental health case manager who worked in Marysville, according to a bulletin prepared for law enforcement.
Wilson developed an infatuation for his mental health case manager and when she didn’t return his affections, he threatened to bomb her office, according to the bulletin.
He then broke the windows out of the woman’s vehicle and lit the car on fire with a Molotov cocktail. When firefighters showed up, he started lobbing rocks at them.
The bulletin also said Wilson suffers from “dramatic mood swings, paranoia” and can sometimes become grandiose. He has told others that he is “the son of Satan” and that Satan has sanctioned him to kill people at random.
“He may suffer from hallucinations that increase his agitation, and he should be approached with caution,” according to the bulletin. It also said he had repeatedly threatened that he planned to “finish the job” against his case manager.
Thomas Shapley, a spokesman for the Department of Social and Health Services, said he did not believe the patient was a danger to the public. The DSHS operates Western State Hospital at Lakewood.
Later, he said questions about any threats Wilson may have made needed to be directed to the Department of Corrections.
Wilson was convicted of second-degree arson and sentenced to community supervision in 2008.
After serving his term, he was placed at the Monroe Correctional Facility on a probation violation and was later released to a Snohomish County Evaluation and Treatment Center. From there, he was placed on an involuntary civil commitment Jan. 18 at Western Hospital for a term of up to 90 days.
He has family in Mukilteo, but the state lists his last known address as homeless in Everett.
Shapley said he can’t talk about specific patients — or even confirm Wilson as a patient. He did acknowledge that a patient “walked away” from a group of other patients who had been given recreational access to the gym Friday. The group of patients was being supervised by one hospital staff member.
The hospital doesn’t consider what happened “escape” because the patient had not been criminally committed.
“He had gone through therapy and achieved a level of privileges that allowed him to be on the grounds out of his ward in the company of staff,” Shapley said. “They were at the gym and he slipped out the door.”
In a prepared statement, DSHS said the patient had been “receiving intensive psychiatric treatment at the hospital and making substantial progress with lessening his mental health symptoms. He was assessed by his multidisciplinary treatment team to be ready for escorted off-ward privileges.”
All security protocols were followed, according to the statement. Nevertheless, the department’s secretary, Susan Dreyfus, ordered a review of the incident.
Shapley said Wilson is now in jail.
“He’s not going back to Western State now,” he said.
After the Department of Corrections learned Wilson had walked away from the hospital, they alerted staff at the Everett field office and other law enforcement agencies. The Marysville case manager was also alerted.
Lewis said the incident underscores how dangerous the work of officers is — and not just those who serve inside prisons.
“Since Officer Jayme Biendl was killed, there was a lot of focus on safety in prisons,” he said. “It’s also dangerous work when you supervise offenders out in the community.”
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