LYNNWOOD – A 36-year-old Lynnwood man was arrested Tuesday after telling Edmonds police he had hit his father in the head with an ax.
Everett Schwan, mid-60s, was found dead in the home at 4415 181st Place he shared with his son Bradley J. Schwan, Lynnwood Police Cmdr. Steve Rider said.
Schwan is in Snohomish County Jail held on $25,000 bail, according to Snohomish County court documents.
An ax with blood on it and a knife were found in the driveway.
“The man was found face down in a back bedroom, and it looked like he had blunt trauma to his head,” Rider said. “He suffered more than one blow.”
The death is being investigated as a homicide.
An employee at Compass Health in Edmonds called police about 9:26 a.m. about an unwanted man at the clinic. Edmonds police spoke with the man, who said he had hit his father in the head with a hatchet.
According to Rider, a neighbor told police she saw Bradley Schwan get a hatchet from outside the house at about 7:45 a.m.
According to court documents, Bradley Schwan told Lynnwood Police detectives “he went for a walk, and returned to his father’s house, when voices in his head told him to return to the house and destroy his father.
“He said he obtained a hatchet from outside the residence, along with a large knife, and struck his father in the head with the hatchet two to three times,” according to court documents. He told detectives that he brought the knife because he thought it was going to be “an all out war,” stated the court documents.
The two men had apparently lived together alone in the neighborhood for more than 15 years and had a reputation with neighbors.
“We’ve always stayed clear of them,” neighbor Rebecca Merrill said. “There’s been domestic problems there for years, and the son has mental problems.”
Merrill said that a couple of years ago, the son had to be removed from a neighbor’s deck.
“He just showed up there,” she said. “We didn’t want to be involved with that.”
Rider said police records show the son has had some misdemeanor offenses. He said it wasn’t clear whether domestic violence or mental illness had been previously reported to police from the residence.
Neighbors Brian and Stacy Moore said that even though they have lived near the men for many years, they never really talked to them.
“The dad would just slowly and quietly come and go and didn’t talk to anyone,” Stacy Moore said. “One year, another neighbor brought them Christmas cookies, and the dad sent them away.”
Brian Moore said, “The only time we really saw the son was if he was out in the street shouting at people.”
Herald reporter Katherine Schiffner contributed to this article.
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