PORT ANGELES — A Port Angeles man was arrested this week for allegedly breaking into the now-closed Tempest apartments.
Guy C. Lesure, 41, was arrested Tuesday for investigation of second-degree burglary and third-degree malicious mischief.
Port Angeles police alleged that Lesure broke a 4 ½-foot-by-3-foot window to gain entry to an apartment at the former permanent-supportive housing center at 112 N. Albert St. at about 5:24 a.m.
The break-in was reported by a worker at a nearby gas station, police said.
“Initial information about the call indicated that people were breaking out windows in the shelter that had been closed down as of midnight,” police said Tuesday.
Lesure told police that he broke the window to get Narcan, which works to reverse the effects of opioid overdose, for a man named Manuel who was experiencing an overdose, court papers said.
The man who was having an overdose was treated at Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles before police arrived at the Tempest, police Cpl. Brian Stamon said in the affidavit for probable cause.
Police asked Lesure why no one had called 9-1-1 and asked if he knew that emergency personnel carry Narcan.
“Lesure stated that he knew that we carry Narcan but he ‘panicked,’ ” Stamon wrote in his report.
“Lesure did not know that Manuel was given two doses of Narcan before being transported. Lesure could not explain to us why he decided to gain entry by breaking a window, especially when the apartment was vacant and that the building was closed.”
The Tempest was a taxpayer-funded permanent-supportive housing program owned and operated by Serenity House of Clallam County.
Citing high crime rates and increasing damage, Serenity House officials notified residents in July that the facility would be closed and they must be out of their units no later than 11:59 p.m. Monday.
The apartment that Lesure allegedly broke into was “very full of piled up garbage, boxes and broken furniture,” Stamon said.
It was one of three apartments at the Tempest that was not boarded up, Stamon said.
Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Nichols did not request that Lesure be held on bail Wednesday.
Superior Court Judge Lauren Erickson released Lesure on his personal recognizance.
County prosecutors will consider filing formal charges against Lesure at his next court appearance at 1 p.m. Friday.
“It’s at that point in time that we’ll either opt to file charges or exonerate,” Nichols said in court Wednesday.
“We’re in the process of gathering some additional information in order to be able to make that determination.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@ peninsuladailynews.com.
