By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – The vicious attack of a Port Angeles, man while sitting on the City Pier, by a juvenile assailant, has left residents rattled and garnered national attention.
The violence attack, which occurred around 5:30am Monday, August 14, was recorded by another juvenile on his phone, then uploaded onto social media, where the two, inexplicably, tagged themselves and assured their arrest later in the week.
The victim reported to the police he was fishing for squid that morning, sat down on the pier and fell asleep before he was attacked.
Police Chief Brian Smith describes what was seen in the video, which has since been taken down by the social media platforms.
“There’s a primary aggressor who, you can see it, kicks punches, pistol-whips, points what appears to be a handgun at the victim. Personal items were taken. The case indicates most were thrown into the water.”
Chief Smith says the crime wasn’t reported to his officers until about 12 hours after it happened. He says they have several surveillance cameras in that area and were able to identify both suspects, aged 15 and 17, quickly. Investigators got search warrants for more than one location and made the arrests on Thursday. One adult was arrested for obstructing the process of those arrests.
“The part about this case that’s particularly egregious, you know, all violent crime is egregious, but this is particularly egregious. We have no evidence that our victim or the suspects know each other at all. So, this is what we call stranger violence, which is very rare in Port Angeles, and particularly damaging to the victim. The posting of the social media videos happened, the suspects did that. You’d have to ask them why they would do something like that. We, of course, added that to the evidence we already have in the case. And, as far as I can tell, the social media platforms took the videos down eventually, but not right away, so the entire world saw those videos.”
Formal charges had not been entered by the Prosecutor’s Office at the time of this writing, nor the court in which the 17-year-old primary aggressor will be tried in, but PAPD recommended he be charged with robbery in the first degree and assault in the second degree.
The condition of the victim is unknown.
(Photo of Port Angeles City Pier by Jay Cline)