PORT ANGELES — A Port Angeles man wanted by city police since May 13 and captured last week will be arraigned Friday on two assault charges after he allegedly tried to run down a Port Angeles police officer with a pickup truck.
Jack Kendall Backman, 35, was charged Tuesday in Clallam County Superior Court with one count each of first-degree assault and second-degree assault, both with a deadly weapon.
The charges stem from Backman allegedly driving his truck at high speed toward Officer Bruce Fernie while he was attempting to speak with Backman, forcing Fernie to move quickly out of the way.
Police arrested Backman on Friday after receiving a tip through North Olympic Crime Stoppers that Backman was near a home in the 1000 block of West 15th Street.
Backman remained in the Clallam County jail Wednesday with no bond set.
Police had been searching for Backman since May 13, when Fernie was dispatched to a home in the 300 block of East Second Street for possible drug activity.
Police account
The probable-cause report for this case gave the following account:
At 6:40 p.m. May 13, Fernie arrived at the Second Street home after a person told 9-1-1 emergency dispatchers that a white truck was parked near the home and the driver was continually honking the horn.
The 9-1-1 caller also said several cars had been seen coming and going from the home.
Fernie approached the white Dodge Dakota and saw a woman in the passenger seat and a man, later identified as Backman, sitting in the driver’s seat.
Backman saw Fernie approaching and started the truck. Fernie told him to stop.
Backman then suddenly shifted the truck into drive and accelerated toward Fernie, forcing him to jump out of the way.
“Backman was so close to me that I pushed myself off the front corner of his driver side quarter panel, using my hands to keep myself from being ran over,” Fernie wrote in the probable-cause report.
Backman has a criminal history in Clallam County, including guilty pleas to cocaine possession and first-degree malicious mischief in 2007, according to court records.
In 2005, Backman pleaded guilty to one count of robbery and unlawful possession of a firearm, both first-degree, after robbing a man at gunpoint outside a gas station along U.S. Highway 101 in Port Angeles.
According to court records, Backman had arranged to meet the man, and when the man arrived, Backman got into the man’s truck and demanded money while pointing a loaded .38-caliber revolver at him.
Backman drove off in the truck after the man fled, only to be found later by a State Patrol trooper.
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Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.
