Defendant in Puyallup toddler’s fatal shooting had ‘plot’ to evade cops, prosecutor says
Pierce County prosecutors on Tuesday said a Puyallup man accused of manslaughter in the shooting death of his 2-year-old nephew tried to evade criminal charges by removing guns used in the shooting from his home and fleeing authorities.
Brian Douglas Widland, 36, was arraigned Tuesday in Pierce County Superior Court. He was arrested Monday by Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, months after 2-year-old Hudson Carlisle was shot by his cousin, an 8-year-old girl.
He was arrested on a warrant issued in June when prosecutors charged Widland with first- and second-degree manslaughter, two counts of unlawfully possessing a firearm, reckless endangerment and community endangerment.
At arraignment Tuesday afternoon, pleas of not guilty were entered on the defendant’s behalf. Court Commissioner Philip Thornton set bail at $1 million.
Widland has several previous felony convictions, according to court documents, including a 2016 conviction for second-degree assault in an injury shooting.
According to prosecutors and charging documents, Widland, the 8-year-old’s father, fled the home shortly after the Dec. 21 shooting, bringing with him his daughter and his guns. Investigators learned the firearms had been left lying around at the time of the shooting. Some were only BB guns, but others were real.
It was one of these firearms, a rifle, according to charging documents, that Widland’s daughter picked up during a game of “wolves” and pulled the trigger, striking Hudson in the head. She later told authorities she thought the gun just “stings you.”
Hudson was brought by ambulance to a hospital, where he later died, court documents state.
Video showed Widland removing the rifle used in the shooting from the home immediately after it happened, according to the declaration for determination of probable cause.
“Mr. Widland actively engaged in a — not to be too dramatic — but essentially a plot to get rid of those firearms so they weren’t available for law enforcement,” deputy prosecutor Thomas Howe said in court. “I think that constitutes unlawfully interfering with the administration of justice.”
In setting the bail amount, Thornton said he had concerns for Widland’s “responsiveness” to the criminal justice system. Charging documents outlined other steps the defendant and other adults who were at the home took to try to throw off the authorities.
One man initially told firefighters that Hudson was injured in a fall, and the toddler’s stepfather later told investigators the same man wanted to come up with a way to say the boy was struck in a drive-by shooting, records say. Investigators also determined Widland gave dispatchers an incorrect address for the shooting incident.
This story was originally published August 9, 2022 at 3:52 PM.
