PHOENIX — A 1993 Port Angeles High School graduate working as a bail bondsman and a bounty hunter in Phoenix was shot and killed this week while taking into custody a man who skipped bail.
David Brickert, 37, and Wesley Kampen, 39, were shot and killed Monday night after trying to take into custody Anthony Brian Giunta, 25, at a Phoenix house, 3TV News in Phoenix said.
The two reportedly struggled with Giunta before handcuffing him and taking him outside.
That’s when another man showed up and shot Brickert and Kampen, Phoenix police said.
Giunta was arrested, but the unnamed shooter is still on the loose, police said.
Brickert, who had lived in Phoenix for at least nine years, leaves behind a fiancee and four children ranging in age from 18 months to 15 years old, said his older brother, Dan Brickert.
Dan Brickert of Longview, who said he generally spoke with his brother by phone several times a week, said he’d heard about the fatal shooting a few hours after it happened.
“I miss him,” he said.
Dan Brickert, who no longer has family in Port Angeles, said his brother and parents lived in Port Angeles in 1984, moved away two years later and came back in 1989 before moving again after his brother finished high school in 1993.
David Brickert had worked for Sanctuary Bail Bonds, a company he co-owned, for the past three years and never really spoke about the danger inherent in his job, his brother said.
“I know that he liked it and had a lot of fun,” Dan Brickert said.
“I think this was the first time they ever actually had a shooting involved [in an arrest].”
Ryan Mullinax, a fellow bail bondsman at Sanctuary Bail Bonds, said David Brickert had “the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever known,” adding that David would take in dogs left abandoned by those he brought in who went on to serve prison time.
“He was truly a kind heart and a very caring person,” Mullinax said in an email Thursday.
“He will be missed by all.”
Dan Brickert said his brother and most of his family enjoyed living on the dangerous side of life and frequently went skydiving, cliff rappelling and rock climbing — “anything that’s man-powered and outside.”
David Brickert, originally from Monroe, was last in Washington state in December to attend the funeral of a family member, his brother said.
“I don’t think he’s been in Port Angeles in a long time, but he’s been back in Washington,” Dan Brickert added.
Sanctuary Bail Bonds has set up a fund to help support the families of David Brickert and Kampen, and donations can be made by visiting the company’s website at http://tinyurl.com/d2fkndp.
Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.
