Police beat: An anguished father, a ruined life and a stolen rifle

Editor’s note: Compiled from reports to Tacoma police.

Jan.1: The man sat on the bed with a rifle barrel in his mouth.

He was 56, no longer wanted in the room he was renting.

Two younger men, 42 and 35, entered the room and halted.

“Don’t do it, man — don’t do it,” one of them said.

The older man’s trigger hand tensed. He spoke.

“I have nowhere to go,” he said.

One of the younger men rushed and shoved the rifle sideways. The weapon fired. The round slammed into the wall above the blinds.

“No, stop!” the older man said, and fought with his savior. The older man wrenched himself away and ran out the back door. The younger men didn’t try to stop him. They saw him run down the street, into an alley, and over a nearby brushy ridge.

Five officers answered the dispatch call, and drove to an address in the 1600 block of South Mullen Street. They spoke to the homeowner, a woman who had rented the room to the man three weeks earlier.

The woman said the man was supposed to be gone. He hadn’t paid his rent. She sent her friends, the two younger men, to check on the room. She gave them a key. She hadn’t seen what happened, though she heard it.

The two younger men told their story: the entrance, the shot, the scuffle. They said the older man ran away with the rifle.

Officers checked the room. They smelled fresh gunpowder. Smoke lingered in the air. They found a spent shell casing and a box of 30-30 rounds.

Another officer directed incoming units to set up containment in the neighborhood.

Outside the house, an officer heard rustling in the brush, and relayed the word: The missing man was climbing back toward the house, over the small ridge.

Two officers corralled the man and cuffed him. They frisked him for weapons. He had none.

Walking to the patrol car, the man began to cry. He said he had planned his suicide for two weeks. He said he spent the holidays with his family, and they didn’t want him around.

He claimed to be a physician who had trained other physicians until he got hooked on Percocet. He said he lost his job.

Court records, not available to police at the scene, told a longer story.

The man had burned through at least three marriages. He’d worked for a medical supply company. He had money and a six-figure income; he blew it on liquor and pills. Multiple women had filed restraining orders against him over the past six years, accusing him of controlling behavior and stalking.

The man told officers he knew the younger men were coming to evict him. He said he loaded the rifle with seven rounds. Yes, he had the barrel in his mouth, and they stopped him from firing, and the gun went off.

Where did he get the gun?

The man said he’d stolen it a few days earlier from his son, who lived in Olympia. He said he made a copy of his son’s house key and took the weapon. The son didn’t know, the man said.

The rifle was a gift, a family heirloom, the man said. His father had given it to him, and he had passed it on to his son.

The man added that after he stole the gun, he bought a box of rounds, intending to kill himself.

Where was the gun?

The man said he didn’t know.

Here, the story deviated. The man said the younger men had wrestled the rifle away from him. The younger men said the man ran away with the weapon.

Other officers spoke again to the two younger men, who stuck to their story: The older man ran off with the rifle. Officers checked the grounds and the surrounding area, and found nothing.

Officers booked the older man into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of unlawful discharge of a firearm.

Following booking, one of the officers spoke to the man’s son in Olympia.

The son said he didn’t know about his father’s theft. He said his father stayed with him for a few weeks recently, and must have copied the house key without telling anyone.

The son told a different story regarding the rifle. It was a lever-action model with a wood stock, possibly a Winchester, given to him by his grandfather, he said.

Officers advised the son to report the burglary and the theft of the rifle. The son refused. He said didn’t want to add a felony charge to his father’s record. Officers gave him a case number.

This story was originally published January 10, 2016 at 6:47 AM with the headline "Police beat: An anguished father, a ruined life and a stolen rifle."