By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – Bret Kenney, the man arrested for assaulting a police officer in Sequim Thursday morning, is also being investigated for his mother’s murder.
Teri Dawn Ward was found dead in her home Thursday morning, four hours after police say Kenney attacked and disarmed the officer during a routine traffic stop. Investigators say they believe Ward died from homicidal violence. Detectives were expected to conclude their investigation Friday and an autopsy is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday.
Kenney made his first appearance in court Friday. Shackled and surrounded by corrections officers, Kenney appeared via closed circuit TV, where Deputy Prosecutor Michele Devlin asked that Kenney be held on $5 million bail, saying they intended to file charges on Tuesday, May 24.
“He does not follow the law. He does not follow any respect for authority, and it is evident how he feels about law enforcement. He is a danger to this community and should be held on $5 million bail.”
Devlin asked the court to find probable cause to hold Kenney for the attempted murder of the unnamed officer he attacked Thursday morning, as well as assault and disarming a police officer.
Court records show that Kenney was stopped that morning because the license plate on his truck was registered to another vehicle. While the officer was walking back to his cruiser, Kenney jumped out of his truck and attacked the officer from behind, both falling to the ground.
Three witnesses heard yelling and gun shots and came to the officer’s aid by restraining Kenney and had him face down on the ground with his hands under him. The officer told the witnesses that Kenney had taken his gun and instructed them to keep him pinned down.
A Sheriff’s Deputy and a second officer arrived soon after and they were able to retrieve the weapon from under Kenney. The gun had two spent rounds. It has not been reported who fired the shots, but we learned for the first time that neither the officer nor the suspect was shot. Both incurred varying injuries during the struggle.
Four hours later, at 8:30am, deputies made a welfare check on a home in the 100 block of Senz Road off Taylor Cutoff, believed to be where Kenney was residing, and found the body of his mother.
Kenney has a history of assaulting law enforcement officers. He was released from prison in January, convicted of assaulting 3 corrections officers while being held in Snohomish County jail. At the time, he had two strikes against him on robbery charges.
According to Michael Held, Chief of Staff at the Snohomish County Prosecutor’s office, the latest conviction would have been his third strike, meaning a mandatory sentence of life in prison. But by the time he pleaded guilty to the new assault charge (the assaults of 3 corrections officers only counting as one charge because they happened at the same time), Washington State lawmakers had removed Robbery 2 as a strike offense, meaning he only had 1 strike for Robbery 1, so he was sentenced to about 6 years. With time served and a credit for early release, he got out in January of this year with two strikes against him.