BY PEPPER FISHER
CARLSBORG — A suspect is in custody after firing off up to 30 rounds from an AK-47 toward law enforcement near Village Lane and Carlsborg Road Tuesday morning.
The incident began around 8a.m. when 37-year-old Justin Cox of Sequim began banging on the windows of an area business and shouting threats. Chief Criminal Deputy Amy Bundy told KONP that the reporting party followed Cox down the street and saw him enter a home that he suspected Cox did not have permission to enter. That’s when deputies arrived.
“So, we had two things to address. One, that he unlawfully entered somebody else’s residence. And two, we need to check on the welfare of Justin Cox based on his mental status. So we knocked on the door, and Justin was heard inside yelling and screaming things about how he was the Messiah. He refused to come outside, and after a short moment later, an elderly gentleman opened the door and said that it was okay, he could help calm Justin down, and he was allowed to be there.”
Things went south from there. Bundy said deputies could see Cox in the house, yelling and screaming that he was going to kill law enforcement.
“All of a sudden, Justin picked up what appeared to be an AK-47 rifle while he was standing behind the homeowner or resident of the house, at which point the resident of the house stepped in between law enforcement and Justin Cox and said, “Well, I can call him down. I can calm him down.” And that resident of the house refused to leave.”
At that point, law enforcement backed off and called in the Crisis Response Team and other backup. By that time they had confirmed it was in fact Justin Cox, who has 7 felony convictions and cannot be in possession of a firearm. Bundy said that a few minutes later the resident of the home left through the back door.
Crisis negotiators worked over loudspeaker to get Cox to come out with his hands up.
“All of a sudden, Justin started firing bullets out of the house towards the armored vehicles on scene, hitting the armored vehicle at least one time, as well as a neighboring house. It should be noted that we did our very best to evacuate all the surrounding residents prior to this tactical operation. There was a total of about 25 to 30 rounds fired from this weapon in the direction of law enforcement. The crisis response team deployed chemical munitions into the residence in an attempt to deescalate and encourage Justin to come out and surrender with his hands up. Justin ran from the back of the residence, unarmed, where he was successfully arrested without injury by law enforcement in a neighboring yard.”
Cox was booked on 7 counts of Assault 1 against law enforcement, reckless endangerment and illegal possession of a firearm.
No one was hurt in this incident.
(CCSO photo)