PORT ANGELES — Police have arrested another juvenile alleged to have assaulted a homeless man last week after he declined to give a group of minors his beer.
The 15-year-old girl was arrested on investigation of fourth-degree assault.
That brings the total number of arrests in the Wednesday evening incident to nine.
Five juveniles and one adult, 20-year-old Briana Miller, have been charged with fourth-degree assault, defined as non-consensual touching or putting someone in fear of bodily harm.
Port Angeles police say they are pursuing the same charge against two other adults who were released from custody after a Clallam County court commissioner found no probable cause to hold them.
Authorities say individuals with the group shoved and spit on 43-year-old Kirk Thiets after he pulled out a pocket knife.
Police said that Thiets acted in self-defense.
They say the homeless man pulled the knife out while being harassed by the group, consisting of youths between the ages 13 and 20, after he declined to give one of them beer that he had with him at City Pier.
A teenage girl also told him to give her his money, which he also declined to do, police said.
Police say that the group followed Thiets to The Gateway transit center after he put the knife away.
They surrounded him there, and one of the juveniles was about to fight Thiets before an unidentified woman intervened, police said.
Deputy Police Chief Brian Smith said the girl, who was arrested Friday, was found at The Gateway. She had left the area Wednesday evening before police arrived, he said.
Smith said each of the nine teenagers and young adults could be found guilty of fourth-degree assault whether or not they all had shoved Thiets or spit on him because each is alleged to have participated in putting him in a fearful situation.
“The act of surrounding someone can be construed, given the totality of the circumstances” as intending to cause harm, Smith said.
“You just don’t get to surround people.”
Sgt. Barb McFall said the transit center and the area around City Pier are popular hangout spots for teenagers and young adults.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
