SHELTON — The Mason County prosecutor’s office sought a warrant to arrest Shawn Matthew Roe for violating his parole, but a District Court pro tem judge refused to issue it.
Meanwhile, Roe’s community corrections officer also requested a warrant for Roe’s arrest from Mason County Superior Court.
It had not been issued before Roe is believed to have killed Forest Service Officer Kristine Fairbanks and Sequim-area retiree Richard Ziegler on Saturday.
Nevertheless, Mason prosecutor Gary Burleson said Monday that no red flags alerted his staff that Roe was a public danger.
“That did not occur in this case,” Burleson told the Peninsula Daily News.
“The violations were very standard violations.”
Moreover, he said, the state Department of Corrections did not issue an order of detention in Roe’s case, nor did it issue its own warrant.
As for the District Court warrant, it was denied by pro tem Judge Stephen Greer of Gig Harbor.
Roe was to appear Sept. 5 in District Court.
“My office requested a warrant at that time,” Burleson said. “The judge refused to issue the warrant.”
Greer could not be reached for comment.
Burleson said his office also told the state Department of Corrections that Roe had missed his court appearance.
“The process was very much in motion,” he said. “We were doing what we could to get him there.
“It was just moving along. We can move only so fast.”
Roe’s criminal history began with charges of domestic violence, unlawful imprisonment and third-degree malicious mischief.
He pleaded guilty to all three charges in 2007, said Reinhold Schuetz, Burleson’s chief criminal deputy prosecutor.
“He did not have any kind of felony record at the time,” Schuetz said.
Although he had a pre-sentence score of zero, Roe was given a top-range penalty.
“He was in a domestic dispute with his then-spouse and wouldn’t let her leave the premises,” Schuetz said.
When she tried to summon help, “he destroyed her phone by shooting a hole through it.”
Roe was prohibited from having firearms but had violated that part of his parole, according to his mother-in-law, Patti White.
When he was killed by Clallam County sheriff’s deputies, Roe was carrying two handguns of his own, plus Fairbanks’ 9 mm service weapon.
But when Roe’s legal problems started, “this guy was not on our radar whatsoever,” Schuetz said.
And if either Mason County Superior Court or District Court had issued a warrant, it might have had no effect on Saturday’s bloody outcome, he said.
“Any officer who would have executed that warrant would have been in the same position as Officer Fairbanks,” Schuetz said.
She died at an Olympic National Forest campground after reporting that Roe’s red Dodge van had no license plates and calling the Washington State Patrol for a records check on Roe.
Roe left the scene and eventually shot Ziegler
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Reporter Jim Casey can be reached at 360-417-3538 or at jim.casey@peninsuladailynews.com.
