Whidbey man charged in assault hid loaded guns in kids’ rooms

Guns were found in a kitchen drawer, under a bed pillow and in each of the children’s bedroom closets.

By Jessie Stensland / Whidbey News-Times

A 32-year-old Oak Harbor man accused of domestic violence had guns hidden all over his house, including loaded rifles in the bedrooms of his grade-school children, according to court documents.

Prosecutors charged Douglas J. Addis in Island County Superior Court Nov. 18 with unlawful imprisonment, assault in the fourth degree and interfering with domestic violence reporting. The counts were all charged as domestic violence crimes.

On Nov. 14, a woman at a City Beach Street home reported to Oak Harbor police that Addis had assaulted her. She said Addis wanted to “play fight” with her and the two children and he ended up sitting on her chest, preventing her from breathing, according to the police report.

The woman said Addis became enraged when she pulled his beard to try to get him off of her. He grabbed her by the neck and pushed her against the couch, preventing her from getting away, the report indicates. After she told him she wanted to leave, he said he knew she was going to call police and that he should beat her, the report states.

Addis grabbed a loaded pistol hidden in the couch and placed the barrel in his mouth; he put it down after she begged, the report states.

Addis then grabbed her cell phone and transferred all the money from her private bank account into his, “leaving no money to buy the kids food or pay the rent,” the report states. She had to use her son’s cell phone to call the police.

The woman consented to have police collect 13 firearms from the house for safekeeping. Guns were found in a kitchen drawer, under a bed pillow and in a nightstand. Loaded rifles were staged on a shelf in each of the children’s bedroom closets.

In addition, a loaded pistol was inside a hollowed-out book under a coffee table in the living room and a loaded scoped rifle was in an entryway closet.

The woman said there were four other incidents of domestic violence while Addis was in the Navy, the report states.

This story originally appeared in the Whidbey News-Times, a sister publication to The Herald.

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