Police: Everett man beat friend with tool over $50 for firewood

EVERETT – The men were friends.

But a New Year’s Eve dispute over $ 50 in firewood left one in hospital with a fractured skull and the other in jail, according to police reports filed in court this week.

A 56-year-old Everett man occasionally stayed in a house on the 9700 block of 27th Avenue SE. The boyfriend was there to drop his girlfriend off, he told police.

He was in his truck playing on his cell phone when the Everett man pulled up in front of him in his red Pontiac. Both got out of their cars. The friend reported seeing alcohol in the Everett man’s hand. The man reportedly yelled at him to owe him cash for firewood.

The friend told authorities the man then hit him in the head with a 2 foot long metal object.

The man from Everett is said to have got into his car and drove away, the wounded man told the police and called the suspect “nonchalant”.

The injured man drove to his father’s house. His father then drove him to the Mill Creek campus in Sweden. When the police arrived at around 9:40 pm on December 31, the wounded man was holding a towel to his head while he was “bleeding profusely,” one officer said in the report.

He later had to be transported to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with a fractured skull and possible bleeding in his brain, a nurse reportedly told police.

The wounded man told police the suspect may have gone to an apartment building near Smokey Point and described the way to get there: Exit the exit, cross the railroad tracks, turn right and then left.

The police found the suspect nearby. In his red Pontiac, an officer reported seeing a steel tool, possibly a large wrench. According to the police report, it was about two meters long.

In a police interview, the Everett man argued that it was self-defense.

The 56-year-old told police he and the boyfriend had an argument earlier in the day about money for firewood before they left to buy alcohol. When he returned, the suspect claimed the friend had confronted him with a hammer. He said that, according to the police report, he “hugged him like a bear”. According to the suspect’s report, they fell and the other man hit his head on the rear bumper of his truck.

The suspect told police he had helped the man but left when the injured man yelled to be sent to jail.

Authorities say the suspect’s story doesn’t make sense.

The suspect reported that the fight occurred at the front of the truck. However, there was no explanation as to how the man could have hit his head on the rear bumper.

And the suspect reported that the man hit his head. But the injuries were on his head, police say.

A police officer told the Everett man that the injuries did not match this story. The officer asked if he had hit the injured man with an object. He said he didn’t and again claimed that he was defending himself.

The Everett man was arrested on an investigation into first degree assault.

He was detained at Snohomish County Jail on Wednesday with bail set at $ 25,000.

Jake-Goldstein-Strasse: 425-339-3439; [email protected]. Twitter: @GoldsteinStreet.