BULLETIN: John Francis Loring, suspected of two killings in the Sequim and Diamond Point areas, is dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Clallam County Sheriff Bill Benedict said today
Loring shot himself in the head with a handgun in an apartment in west Port Angeles, Benedict said.
Law enforcement officers had talked with Loring on the phone and had lobbed tear gas into the apartment before a shot was heard, Benedict said.
Residents of several apartments in the complex, as well as those of four homes in the area of West 16th Street, had been evacuated beginning at 6 a.m. today, and have since returned home.
The Diamond Point man that Loring is suspected of having killed was identified as Ray Varney, 65.
Loring had dated Varney’s daughter, Benedict said.
Law enforcement had sought Loring since Tuesday morning, when 19-year-old David J. Randle was fatally shot in a house on Woodcock Road.
Randle was the son of a woman Loring had dated, Benedict said.
Authorities said they will release more information at a press conference this afternoon.
Further details will be provided as they become available.
Earlier report:
SEQUIM — Law enforcement officers were looking Tuesday for a 6-foot-6-inch man who they believe killed a young man at a Woodcock Road home earlier in the day.
Authorities were investigating a second homicide — of a 65-year-old man found in the Diamond Point area about 10 miles east — late in the afternoon.
The Diamond Point man was not immediately identified.
Deputies and police said the man they were seeking was John Francis Loring, 45, whom Clallam County Sheriff Bill Benedict described as “armed and extremely dangerous.”
The man shot on Woodcock Road was identified as David J. Randle, 19.
“This [Diamond Point homicide] is not a shooting for sure, but there’s another dead body involved with this,” Benedict said.
“I know it was a homicide, but I think it occurred a couple of days ago.”
Benedict said it ap-peared to be related to Tuesday’s shooting that occurred in the Dungeness unincorporated area Tuesday morning, and that it appeared Loring was involved because Loring was driving the Diamond Point victim’s vehicle.
“I suspect the Diamond Point victim was killed before the Woodcock Road victim,” Benedict said.
Benedict said Loring — described as 6 feet 6 inches tall with long brown hair in a ponytail and wearing glasses — fled westbound from the home at 3923 Woodcock Road driving a 2001 white Dodge Dakota pickup truck with a white canopy.
Benedict said Loring is believed to be carrying the handgun that was used to kill Randle.
Late in the afternoon, the Sheriff’s Office said the white pickup had been recovered, and Loring was believed to be driving a 1985 blue Volkswagen van bearing Washington license plates 613-PMG
Eyewitnesses told deputies that a man they identified as Loring approached the bright blue house at Woodcock Road and Meyer Andrew Lane.
An altercation occurred in which at least one shot was fired, striking and killing Randle, the Sheriff’s Office said.
One of the witnesses called 9-1-1 to report the shooting, the Sheriff’s Office reported.
Loring knew the victim but did not have a family relationship with Randle, said Benedict, who did not provide further information.
Loring is homeless and living in his truck but was previously served with a restraining order that prevented him from living at an earlier residence in Sequim, Benedict said.
Along with investigators from the Sheriff’s Office, personnel with the Sequim Police Department, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, the State Patrol and Clallam County Fire District No. 3 were at the house after the shooting occurred Tuesday morning.
Loring was arrested earlier this year by the Sequim Police Department for investigation of being a convicted felon in possession of a weapon, Benedict said.
Loring had been convicted of possession of a controlled substance, methamphetamine, according to county Superior Court records.
He was charged Jan. 9 with second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm and violation of a no-contact, protection or restraining order.
Loring is out on $5,000 bail on the weapons and violation-of-no-contact charges, according to court records.
A trial is scheduled for March 27 in Clallam County Superior Court.
He is represented on the weapons charge by Port Angeles lawyer Ralph Anderson.
“I’ve already indicated, at least initially, I will represent him” if Loring is charged with murder, Anderson said late Tuesday.
At least 10 squad cars from different police agencies and Clallam County Fire District No. 3 emergency vehicles converged on and near the scene shortly after 10 a.m. Tuesday.
The stretch of Woodcock Road in front of the house was blocked off for about an hour, requiring traffic to take detours in both directions.
Fire district medics attended to the gunshot victim, and a crew from Olympic Ambulance was called to the scene by law enforcement to evaluate the man who had been shot, who was lying outside the home.
With steady rainfall coming down over the crime scene, both the county sheriff’s emergency services vehicle and the city of Sequim’s police investigation trailer were wheeled onto the scene to shelter investigators.
Benedict urged residents not to approach Loring.
“We just want to find this knucklehead and get him behind bars,” Benedict said.
To report information to the authorities, phone 9-1-1 or the sheriff’s dispatch at 360-417-2459.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
