Restraining Orders Are Worthless

Sadly, once again we learn that the only good restraining order is one printed on a sheet of Kevlar.

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PORT ANGELES, Wash. — Police say a man kicked in the door of his ex-girlfriend’s house and shot her to death before taking his own life on Sunday.

Deputy Chief Terry Gallagher said the woman’s two daughters ran upstairs and called 911 to report that the 41-year-old man was in their house with a gun.

Officers heard two gun shots as they arrived at the house in near the intersection of West 13th Street and South Oak Street, and found the man and woman dead inside.

The two girls, age 9 and 11, were found hiding in a closet and were not hurt.

Gallagher said the man and woman, whose names have not been released, broke up about five months ago. The 35-year-old woman who was killed had also filed for an anti-harassment order.

Detectives cordoned off the area and had to wait for a search warrant before going back in the home to begin collecting evidence.

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Another Good Reason To Carry a Gun

Harps’ death called “random predatory violent killing”

By Natalie Singer
Seattle Times staff reporter

The motive behind the slaying of Shannon Harps wasn’t rape, or robbery, or revenge for some perceived slight, King County prosecutors say.

There apparently was nothing particular about the 31-year-old Sierra Club employee that made her a killer’s target as she walked to her Capitol Hill apartment on New Year’s Eve.

James Anthony Williams, the man accused of Harps’ slaying, would later tell detectives she was merely “in the wrong place at the wrong time,” according to court documents charging Williams with first-degree murder.

“It is our worst fear — a random predatory violent killing,” King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said during a news conference Tuesday announcing the charges.

Williams, 48, an ex-convict with a long history of mental illness, could face 25 to 33 years in prison if convicted. He’s being held in King County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail and is scheduled to be arraigned next Tuesday.

Satterberg and court documents supporting the charge provided new details in Harps’ slaying and how she was targeted by a man she apparently had never met. Satterberg also announced Tuesday the creation of a panel to investigate why Williams, whose long history of mental illness and criminal activity — including 248 infractions committed in prison while serving an 11-year sentence for randomly shooting a man in 1995 and a host of violations he committed after his 2006 release — was a free man when the slaying occurred.

The group, made up of prosecutors, officials with the state Department of Corrections (DOC), mental-health workers and law-enforcement officers, will produce a report detailing the efforts to supervise Williams in the 20 months between his release from prison and the slaying, Satterberg said.

“This is not an exercise in blaming anyone other than James Williams for this murder,” he said. “It is simply the responsible thing to do — to examine our system when the most intensive supervision scheme we have developed could not prevent this terrible crime.”

According to the affidavit of probable cause, Williams saw Harps walking alone on a Capitol Hill street around 7 p.m. on Dec. 31 and began following her.

He was armed with a butcher knife, the same type of knife he had previously told police and social workers he liked to keep with him, according to court documents detailing Williams’ criminal and mental-health history.

As Harps reached the stairwell outside her condominium building, Williams began stabbing her repeatedly, commanding her to die, Satterberg said.

A witness heard Harps call for help and saw her stagger out of the stairwell, according to the charging documents.

He dialed 911 and then saw a man emerge from the stairwell, look briefly at him and casually walk away, according to the papers.

Police questioned Williams about an hour after the stabbing after finding him at a nearby bus shelter drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, the same beer found near the scene of the slaying. But they let him go after he said he didn’t know anything and witnesses said he was not the man they had seen near the scene of the stabbing.

Williams agreed to give police a voluntary cheek swab while they interviewed him after the slaying. This proved to be the break in the case.

On Friday, police announced that Williams’ DNA matched that found on the knife recovered near the crime scene. After questioning him a second time, he confessed, they said, telling detectives he had no particular reason to pick Harps.

At that point, Williams had already been in jail for 10 days after he was arrested for missing a required appointment with a mental-health provider, one of many violations of his probation.

While in prison for shooting a man at a bus stop in 1995, Williams constantly exhibited threatening behavior toward corrections officers and racked up 248 serious infractions, according to court documents.

And after getting out, he spent a total of about 9-½ months of 2007 in jail because of various violations of his community-supervision conditions — requirements he had to meet as part of his release from prison in 2006.

Classified as a Dangerous Mentally Ill Offender, he did receive enhanced supervision in the community, according to the King County Prosecutor’s Office and DOC officials.

He was brought before the court several times when he violated his conditions, was once sent to Western State Hospital for involuntary commitment, was sanctioned to various jail terms and was ordered to continue outpatient mental-health treatment, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.

In March, he told a police officer that he planned to “shoot all his caseworkers” at Sound Mental Health.

In September, police found an 8-inch butcher knife in his sweat-shirt pocket after the landlord of his Capitol Hill apartment told police he had threatened her. He stayed in jail on that charge until just 10 days before Harps was slain.

Natalie Singer: 206-464-2704 or nataliesinger@seattletimes.com

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Potpourri…

Ruger 10/22 Update:

I talked to Volquartsen this afternoon about a problem I had last Friday before the match. It was the first time I’d taken it to the range since installing their HP trigger group parts kit I got from Midway USA. The safety wouldn’t engage, the over travel screw was very loose and tightening up on it’s own with every pull of the trigger and most importantly of all, I was getting light strikes every time; none of which were hard enough to actually set off the round. I was, and continue to get extraction issues, but I’m thinking maybe that is because I am using subsonic ammo. Anyway, I was able to get my rifle back into service by swapping out the new hammer and hammer spring with the factory parts. I shot the practice this way and the match the next day with the factory hammer and spring which I’m sure affected my trigger pull. To Volquartsen’s credit, they are going to send me a new sear, hammer and hammer spring in exchange for my current parts. The tech I spoke to said that they have made some changes to these parts and have eliminated the problems I am having. With luck the parts should be here within the week.

I have a bi-pod on my 10/22 now! It’s a Rockmount (Harris clone). Unfortunately I didn’t have the cash to get it before the match, but I have one now and we’ll see what effect it has the next time I get up to the range.

In other related news, I am considering a switch to a 1200 fps round instead of the current 1080 fps cartridge I am currently using. My hope is that if the bullets stays supersonic for the entire trip I’ll be less affected by the wind and air turbulence.

Etc…

At the Washougal, WA gun show, the same day as the match, I managed to sell my Ruger Vaquero for some much needed cash. I hated getting rid of it, but I hardly ever shot it and it was painful to shoot, not to mention the costs of feeding a .44 Magnum. I reloaded for it, but still it was expensive.

I picked up 75 rounds of 7.62×54R for $18 at the show also (this stuff is getting hard to find), and an old Herters Powder scale for $5. The brass beam on the scale was so tarnished I couldn’t read the scale markings on it. When I got it home I disassembled it and with some cotton balls and Brasso I managed to get the beam shining like gold. Using my check weights I tested it out and found it’s only reading .2 gn’s low with 50 gn’s of weight in the pan. Not bad for a powder scale as old as this one appears to be. It does seem to take forever to settle down though. In contrast, my RCBS 5-0-5 scale reads .1 gn low with the same amount of weight. Accurate enough I say.

Oh, did I mention the joker with an incomplete Lee Progressive 1000 reloading press? He wanted $100 dollars for it and wouldn’t budge past $80. For $149 shipped, I can have a brand new press in .38/.357 from Natches Shooters Supply. I offered him $50 and he and his buddy thought that was the funniest thing they’d ever heard. Seriously folks, if I am going to have to buy crap to make something work, and the new price for the same item is the same or less than I would be spending, I’d have to be an idiot to buy the incomplete, used item. I told him no thanks and walked away.

Oh, a few posts ago I bemoaned the price of ammo? Well, today I went to Bi-mart and found the same 525 round Federal bulk box of .22lr for $10.99. Either they have better connections or something… The UMC 250 round box of 9mm was $3 more than it was months ago at $47.99, so not as bad as Sportsman’s Warehouse as far as ammo goes. If you’re in the Pacific Northwest area and you have a Bi-mart next to you, go check out their ammo prices. They also have regular specials too, keep an eye out for those.

Well, that’s pretty much it for now. Oh, if you get a chance, go check out The People of the Gun and join the tribe!

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Another Victory for "Safe Storage"

Pit Bull Enters Home Attacking Teen, Dogs

ETHEL, Wash. — A pit bull charged into a south sound home near Ethel on Friday night coming after 19-year-old Jennifer Lee and killing her shih tzu, GT.

“It ran right over the top of me after the dog,” Lee said.

According to Lee, the pit bull attacked and quickly killed her small dog while she scrambled to get her husky puppies rounded up and locked into a bathroom.

“I was screaming my head off,” Lee said.Lee told KIRO 7 Eyewitness New she ran to the back of her home to the family’s gun safe looking for protection.

VIDEO: Pit Bull Attacks, Kills Small Dog

“By the time I got to the guns, the dog had blocked me in and I realized the bullets were not in the guns,” Lee said.

Lee then called her mother who was in Oregon at the time.

“She’s screaming, she’s terrified,” Lee’s mother said after replaying the voice mail Lee left on her phone.

One of Lee’s friends knocked on the door as Lee was cornered and distracted the dog so Lee could escape through a window.

“She could have been mauled. She’d be dead. There’s no way she could fight off a pit bull ,” Lee’s mother said.

According to Lee’s family, the pit bull left bite marks on the hardwood floor where it attacked the shih tzu and destroyed part of a new video game console.

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Teen Sentenced to Give Speeches on Gun Control

Judge is lenient in sentencing teen who shot stepbrother

SEATTLE — A Burien teen who shot his stepbrother by accident has been sentenced to 24 months of home detention by a judge who said justice has to be tailored for each person.

Timothy Miller and Lena Jantoc pleaded for leniency for their son Jordan Jantoc almost a year after another son, Michael “Mikey” Miller, was accidentally shot and killed in the basement of their Burien home.

“We are overwhelmed every day. We feel it every day when we look at Jordan,” Lena Jantoc sobbed. “Punishing Jordan will never ease the pain of losing Michael.”

The family’s pastor, a school principal and tearful relatives all urged Superior Court Judge Harry McCarthy to not send Jordan, 16, to prison as recommended by prosecutors. The judge agreed.

“I think this is a case where justice needs to be tempered with mercy,” McCarthy said before he sentenced Jordan to 24 months of home detention, followed by probation when he will be required to give speeches on gun control.

“This is an extraordinary case to say the least,” McCarthy said. “It has resulted in a real tragedy for the family.”

Jordan cried throughout much of the court hearing and apologized repeatedly to his family for the pain he has caused them.

“I take full responsibility for what I did,” he said. “He was my brother. We did everything together.”

On Sept. 21, 2006, the two boys were in the basement of the family home when Jordan pulled a silver .380-caliber handgun from underneath his mattress to show his stepbrother. King County sheriff’s deputies said Jordan had obtained the weapon by trading a 9-mm Glock that he’d stolen from his stepfather.

The two were examining the weapon when it went off, a bullet lodging in Mikey’s collarbone.

“The gun was not aimed at Mikey,” defense attorney Matthew King said.

Deputy Prosecutor Don Raz told the judge that he and Jordan’s family had agreed that the teen should serve a significantly reduced sentence. Jordan had pleaded guilty in July to first-degree manslaughter, which carries a penalty of up to eight years in prison.

But Raz said Jordan should face incarceration for such a “serious violent crime” in addition to the 353 days of electronic detention he has served. McCarthy disagreed, though, and said justice “has to sometimes be tailored for each person.”

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