Someone tried to hit a Liq for the beezy... Gun battle ensue's 50-100 shots
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Deadly shootout at marijuana grow house 'sounded like a war'
As far as the sheriff's office is concerned, there were no innocent victims in a home invasion robbery that left one man dead and two wounded on Thursday night.
By Christine Clarridge
Seattle Times staff reporters
LAKEBAY, Pierce County — As far as the sheriff's office is concerned, no one involved in the home-invasion robbery that left one man dead and two wounded Thursday night was an innocent victim.
"They brought it on themselves," said Sgt. Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff's Department.
The people who were in the home targeted by intruders are suspected drug dealers, he said. Individuals on both sides were well-armed, and none was afraid to shoot.
"We're going to arrest everyone we can on both sides and let the prosecutor sort it out," Troyer said Friday.
According to the Sheriff's Department, a group of seven or so people dressed in camouflage attempted to rob the home in the 19100 block of Second Street KPN on the Key Peninsula, where Troyer said marijuana was being grown and other drugs were being sold.
The invaders, who arrived in at least two vehicles, entered the residence shortly after 8 p.m., the Sheriff's Department said, and immediately a gunfight erupted. An estimated 50 to 100 gunshots were fired, Troyer said. "Their gunbattle went from the house, down the driveway and into the road," he said. "We're lucky that none of our guys, and none of the neighbors, were hurt."
One of the suspected robbers, still armed with a shotgun, was found fatally wounded, deputies said. Another suspect was injured, as was the 28-year-old homeowner. Troyer told The News Tribune that the dead man was the father of the injured robbery suspect.
Both wounded men were taken to Tacoma General Hospital and are expected to survive, Troyer said.
As of Friday afternoon, Troyer said, three people had been arrested: a woman who was identified as the robbers' getaway driver, and two men who'd been inside the home.
The two men were being held in Pierce County Jail on investigation of second-degree murder, and the woman was being held on investigation of first-degree murder, according to jail records.
Authorities are still seeking three to four additional robbery suspects, he said.
Although deputies warned neighbors to stay indoors Thursday night while they searched the woods with K-9 units and thermal-imaging devices, no suspects are now believed to be in the area.
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Troyer said deputies do not know whether any other individuals suffered injuries in the battle.
"Some of them may be in somebody's fleabag apartment, dead for all we know," Troyer said.
Troyer said investigators have determined the homeowner had made a few drug deals in recent days that "had gone sideways." Detectives are trying to determine whether those deals — which reportedly resulted in some "disappointed customers" — were connected with the robbery, or if the intruders were motivated simply by "drugs and money."
Barbara Horn, a neighbor, said she was standing at the back door of her home when she heard dozens of gunshots.
"All of a sudden, guys in dark clothing started running through the woods shooting," she said Friday morning. "It sounded like a war."
She said she heard someone screaming for help.
Horn said she wanted to go to him but was too afraid. Instead she went inside, locked the doors, turned out the lights and called police.
Another neighbor, Jay Fox, said he heard "more gunshots than I ever heard in any movie." He guessed about 100 rounds were fired in 20 seconds from what he believed were four to five different weapons.
Then Fox saw vehicles speed down the road and heard a man yell, "We'll be back with our AK-47s."
Fox, who moved to the neighborhood less than a year ago, said even before Thursday he had been suspicious of the home.
"There was an awful lot of traffic," he said.
Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or [email protected]
Seattle Times news researcher Miyoko Wolf contributed to this report.
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lol i thought this comment was funny...
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Terrance
Redmond, WA
Suspect #1: Jeez, they've got more guns than we thought.
Suspect #2: Better aim, too.
Suspect #1: Time to pull out the AK-47s and mow the lawn, man!
Suspect #2: Um...
Suspect #1: What?
Suspect #2: Uh, the AK-47s?
Suspect #1: Yeah, those. Didn't you pack them?
Suspect #2: I thought you were going to pack them.
Suspect #1: No...I got the camo, Jim got the shotguns, you get the AKs. You forgot them!
Suspect #2: My task was filling the gas tanks...
Suspect #1: Oh, for Pete's sake...(yelling out the window) We'll be back with our AK-47s!
What a bunch of Homers...
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As far as the sheriff's office is concerned, there were no innocent victims in a home invasion robbery that left one man dead and two wounded on Thursday night.
By Christine Clarridge
Seattle Times staff reporters
LAKEBAY, Pierce County — As far as the sheriff's office is concerned, no one involved in the home-invasion robbery that left one man dead and two wounded Thursday night was an innocent victim.
"They brought it on themselves," said Sgt. Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff's Department.
The people who were in the home targeted by intruders are suspected drug dealers, he said. Individuals on both sides were well-armed, and none was afraid to shoot.
"We're going to arrest everyone we can on both sides and let the prosecutor sort it out," Troyer said Friday.
According to the Sheriff's Department, a group of seven or so people dressed in camouflage attempted to rob the home in the 19100 block of Second Street KPN on the Key Peninsula, where Troyer said marijuana was being grown and other drugs were being sold.
The invaders, who arrived in at least two vehicles, entered the residence shortly after 8 p.m., the Sheriff's Department said, and immediately a gunfight erupted. An estimated 50 to 100 gunshots were fired, Troyer said. "Their gunbattle went from the house, down the driveway and into the road," he said. "We're lucky that none of our guys, and none of the neighbors, were hurt."
One of the suspected robbers, still armed with a shotgun, was found fatally wounded, deputies said. Another suspect was injured, as was the 28-year-old homeowner. Troyer told The News Tribune that the dead man was the father of the injured robbery suspect.
Both wounded men were taken to Tacoma General Hospital and are expected to survive, Troyer said.
As of Friday afternoon, Troyer said, three people had been arrested: a woman who was identified as the robbers' getaway driver, and two men who'd been inside the home.
The two men were being held in Pierce County Jail on investigation of second-degree murder, and the woman was being held on investigation of first-degree murder, according to jail records.
Authorities are still seeking three to four additional robbery suspects, he said.
Although deputies warned neighbors to stay indoors Thursday night while they searched the woods with K-9 units and thermal-imaging devices, no suspects are now believed to be in the area.
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Troyer said deputies do not know whether any other individuals suffered injuries in the battle.
"Some of them may be in somebody's fleabag apartment, dead for all we know," Troyer said.
Troyer said investigators have determined the homeowner had made a few drug deals in recent days that "had gone sideways." Detectives are trying to determine whether those deals — which reportedly resulted in some "disappointed customers" — were connected with the robbery, or if the intruders were motivated simply by "drugs and money."
Barbara Horn, a neighbor, said she was standing at the back door of her home when she heard dozens of gunshots.
"All of a sudden, guys in dark clothing started running through the woods shooting," she said Friday morning. "It sounded like a war."
She said she heard someone screaming for help.
Horn said she wanted to go to him but was too afraid. Instead she went inside, locked the doors, turned out the lights and called police.
Another neighbor, Jay Fox, said he heard "more gunshots than I ever heard in any movie." He guessed about 100 rounds were fired in 20 seconds from what he believed were four to five different weapons.
Then Fox saw vehicles speed down the road and heard a man yell, "We'll be back with our AK-47s."
Fox, who moved to the neighborhood less than a year ago, said even before Thursday he had been suspicious of the home.
"There was an awful lot of traffic," he said.
Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or [email protected]
Seattle Times news researcher Miyoko Wolf contributed to this report.
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lol i thought this comment was funny...
-----------
Terrance
Redmond, WA
Suspect #1: Jeez, they've got more guns than we thought.
Suspect #2: Better aim, too.
Suspect #1: Time to pull out the AK-47s and mow the lawn, man!
Suspect #2: Um...
Suspect #1: What?
Suspect #2: Uh, the AK-47s?
Suspect #1: Yeah, those. Didn't you pack them?
Suspect #2: I thought you were going to pack them.
Suspect #1: No...I got the camo, Jim got the shotguns, you get the AKs. You forgot them!
Suspect #2: My task was filling the gas tanks...
Suspect #1: Oh, for Pete's sake...(yelling out the window) We'll be back with our AK-47s!
What a bunch of Homers...
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Not necessarily capital murder, no...but murder, yes. If you and I went out to rob somebody, and the person we robbed shot and killed me, you would be held responsible for my death.
This dude was probably committing a felony by growing substantial amounts of weed, so he may be held responsible for the death (no self-defense). It depends on the judge and the jury. My cousin robbed a weed spot once, the grower called the jakes, and my cousin went to jail...the grower did not. So, they can overlook the fact that he was growing weed.
In any case, every single robber involved is facing a murder charge because somebody died while they were robbing the house.
This dude was probably committing a felony by growing substantial amounts of weed, so he may be held responsible for the death (no self-defense). It depends on the judge and the jury. My cousin robbed a weed spot once, the grower called the jakes, and my cousin went to jail...the grower did not. So, they can overlook the fact that he was growing weed.
In any case, every single robber involved is facing a murder charge because somebody died while they were robbing the house.
Violent crime goes hand in hand with anything that is illegal, but the government denies that shit. The Mafia in the United States grew from prohibition, so what did they think was going to happen with a "war on drugs"? If shit was legal and regulated like alcohol and cigarettes, people wouldn't be dying all over the place.
I don't think they have a murder problem in Amsterdam...but they sure as fuck have one here and south of the border. Simply legalizing shit like weed and blow would cut the murder rate in half. The only problem is, these idiots think that making coke and weed legal will turn everybody into coke and weed heads. If you don't drink, you don't drink...if you don't smoke, you don't smoke. Having legal cigs and alcohol hasn't turned people into addicts...
I don't think they have a murder problem in Amsterdam...but they sure as fuck have one here and south of the border. Simply legalizing shit like weed and blow would cut the murder rate in half. The only problem is, these idiots think that making coke and weed legal will turn everybody into coke and weed heads. If you don't drink, you don't drink...if you don't smoke, you don't smoke. Having legal cigs and alcohol hasn't turned people into addicts...
update
No charges against men who killed pot-house intruder
Posted by Jennifer Sullivan
Pierce County prosecutors announced Monday that they will not file criminal charges against three men for opening fire on a group of armed intruders who stormed their home last week, killing one.
Prosecutors say that the residents were growing marijuana inside the home.
Nearly 100 rounds were fired between the two sides during the battle inside the home in the 19100 block of Second Street in the Lakebay area of the Key Peninsula on Thursday, authorities said. One of the suspected intruders, Rhett Whitchurch, 44, of White Center, was killed, prosecutors said. Whitchurch was armed.
One of the residents, James Scott, 28, was shot in the shoulder and survived, prosecutors said.
Two suspects -- one of the men accused of entering the home and the female getaway driver -- were arrested. Justin Hill, 27, was charged with first-degree assault, first-degree attempted burglary and unlawful possession of a firearm. Julia Jones, 22, was charged with first-degree attempted burglary.
Hill and Jones were scheduled to be arraigned in Pierce County Superior Court on Monday afternoon. Prosecutors say that the investigation is continuing and additional arrests are likely.
The Pierce County Sheriff's Department is also investigating the marijuana-growing operation and charges against the three men who lived at the home are also being considered, prosecutors said.
Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist, in a news release, called Whitchurch's slaying "justifiable homicide because the homeowners were defending themselves."
No charges against men who killed pot-house intruder
Posted by Jennifer Sullivan
Pierce County prosecutors announced Monday that they will not file criminal charges against three men for opening fire on a group of armed intruders who stormed their home last week, killing one.
Prosecutors say that the residents were growing marijuana inside the home.
Nearly 100 rounds were fired between the two sides during the battle inside the home in the 19100 block of Second Street in the Lakebay area of the Key Peninsula on Thursday, authorities said. One of the suspected intruders, Rhett Whitchurch, 44, of White Center, was killed, prosecutors said. Whitchurch was armed.
One of the residents, James Scott, 28, was shot in the shoulder and survived, prosecutors said.
Two suspects -- one of the men accused of entering the home and the female getaway driver -- were arrested. Justin Hill, 27, was charged with first-degree assault, first-degree attempted burglary and unlawful possession of a firearm. Julia Jones, 22, was charged with first-degree attempted burglary.
Hill and Jones were scheduled to be arraigned in Pierce County Superior Court on Monday afternoon. Prosecutors say that the investigation is continuing and additional arrests are likely.
The Pierce County Sheriff's Department is also investigating the marijuana-growing operation and charges against the three men who lived at the home are also being considered, prosecutors said.
Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist, in a news release, called Whitchurch's slaying "justifiable homicide because the homeowners were defending themselves."
