PORT ANGELES — A Port Angeles man remained in the Clallam County jail Monday afternoon on a misdemeanor charge while the Clallam County sheriff’s office continued to investigate one of two alleged drive-by shootings from over the weekend.
Seth D. Weathers, 31, was in jail for investigation of aiming or discharging firearms/dangerous weapons, a gross misdemeanor. No bail amount was listed.
Two counts of drive-by shooting and one count of concealed pistol carry without a license were dropped.
Steve Johnson, Clallam County prosecuting attorney, wrote in a Monday afternoon email that the Saturday incident in Port Angeles was referred to district court because he did not believe the evidence in the probable cause statement met the elements of a drive-by shooting.
Regarding the incident in Agnew on Friday, Johnson wrote that he has asked the sheriff’s office to conduct further investigation to determine if it would qualify as a drive-by shooting or another felony.
No one was reported hurt in the incidents.
The first shooting report was at about 4:30 p.m. Friday from two people on horseback in the 100 block of Finn Hall Road in Agnew. They told deputies that a speeding driver fired three shots at them after they tried to slow him down by yelling and waving, the sheriff’s office said in a press release.
The riders described the vehicle as a blue pickup with a canopy. Deputies recovered one spent shell casing in the area that day. The casing was from a 9mm round manufactured by Hornaday.
A witness provided detectives with home video and audio surveillance, in which three gunshots can be heard. Seconds later, a blue truck similar to a Dodge is seen on the video driving east to west, the sheriff’s office said. On Saturday, investigators were provided with a second video filmed about an eight-minute drive from the reported crime scene, according to the release.
On Saturday, a second report of a drive-by shooting was received by the Port Angeles Police Department.
A witness said the driver of a blue Dodge pickup fired at another motorist in the area of the intersection of Park and Peabody streets, the sheriff’s office said.
Officers recovered one spent shell casing, a 9mm manufactured by Hornaday.
Deputies set up a perimeter along certain choke points and a deputy assigned to the perimeter saw the pickup traveling east on U.S. Highway 101 and followed it.
The pickup pulled into the Walmart Supercenter parking lot east of Port Angeles and the deputy and a Washington State Patrol trooper performed a high-risk traffic stop on it, the sheriff’s office said in the release.
Weathers, the only occupant of the vehicle, was armed with a concealed 9mm handgun that had one round in the chamber and six more rounds in the 15-round magazine, the sheriff’s office said, adding that the rounds were all manufactured by Hornaday.
On Sunday, members of the Clallam County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team searched the Finn Hall area but found no more evidence, the sheriff’s office said.
Anyone with information about these or similar events is asked to contact the sheriff’s office at 360-417-2459.
