PORT ANGELES — A man wanted for first-degree attempted murder returned to the scene of the crime — and was arrested, ending a four-week manhunt.
After a 10-hour standoff, convicted felon and fugitive Mario Wayne Hackney, 45, was booked Wednesday evening into Clallam County Jail, with bond set at $1 million, after a multi-agency team of law enforcement officers found him in the attic of a home in the 200 block of Cameron Road west of Port Angeles.
It was the same home where he allegedly stepped out from behind a shed on Sept. 20 with a shotgun and fired at a man in a pickup, peppering the side of the truck with buckshot but missing the driver, court documents said.
While trying to escape, the driver crashed the pickup, authorities said, then fell while fleeing, injuring himself.
The shooting led to the intensive hunt for Hackney by law-enforcement agencies.
Hackney will be arraigned at 1:30 p.m., Oct. 26 at the Clallam County Courthouse, said John Troberg, deputy prosecuting attorney for Clallam County.
His capture leaves one North Olympic Peninsula fugitive from an unrelated crime at large — Andrew David Nilsson, charged with numerous domestic violence offenses. He is believed to be in California. [See story, Page A4.]
A “partnership” among law enforcement and area residents via social media such as Facebook, Nixle, the Sheriff’s Office website, local news media and citizens involved in local Block Watch programs was a major factor in the capture, Undersheriff Ron Peregrin said.
The Sheriff’s Office got a tip he might have returned to the house.
After the Sept. 20 shooting, Peregrin said, deputies nearly caught Hackney three days later after locating a minivan linked to him at a Diamond Point home.
But Hackney evaded deputies, crashed the van on Woods Road and bolted into the nearby forest.
Investigators kept watch at locations where Hackney had friends, Peregrin said.
The Cameron Road house was the residence of Hackney’s friends and was being watched since Hackney had few places to go, he said.
When it became apparent that Hackney had returned, law enforcement personnel from a variety of agencies surrounded the home.
They were from the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office, Port Angeles Police Department, Olympic Peninsula Narcotics Enforcement Team and U.S. Border Patrol.
Border Patrol officers were present in case Hackney took off into the woods, Peregrin said.
“They are very good man-trackers,” he said.
According to an official Sheriff’s Office statement detailing the series of events, deputies attempted to contact Hackney for 90 minutes using a bullhorn and threw a cellphone through a window in the house to try to establish communication.
Woman arrested
Heidi Irwin-Loran, 40, a resident of the home, surrendered to officials at noon and was booked for investigation of rendering criminal assistance in the first degree, a Class C felony, Peregrin said.
Officials continued using the bullhorn to try to contact Hackney, who remained inside, and periodically launched volleys of teargas into the structure.
At 4:25 p.m., they breached a window, and a few minutes later, some of the lawmen went under the house.
Shortly after 5 p.m., deputies entered to conduct a room-by-room search assisted by a Port Angeles police dog, Kilo.
At 6:05 p.m., Hackney was found hiding in the unfinished attic and was captured without resistance, Peregrin said.
He refused medical aid and made no statements to law enforcement at the scene.
Hackney has nine felony convictions for second-degree identity theft, drug possession, malicious mischief, possession of stolen property and second-degree burglaries, the sheriff’s office said.
After the Sept. 20 shooting, Chadwick Cargo, 40, a neighbor of Hackney’s on Cameron Road, was arrested for investigation of first-degree rendering criminal assistance,
Authorities allege that Cargo provided transportation to Hackney.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
