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Two fathers and their
sons went hunting in Brinnon on Saturday, but after legally downing an elk with
a muzzle-loading rifle, they found themselves staring down the barrels of guns
pointed at them by uniformed officers of the Port Gamble S’klallam Tribe.
“The whole thing was
handled way wrong,” said Don Phipps, who shot the elk. “I’ve never
had anyone pull a gun on me in my whole life. I didn’t understand it.”
Phipps, his son Danny,
22, and friend Adam Boling, 28 were handcuffed for two hours while bystanders
watched from nearby U.S. 101. Also with the three men was Boling’s 2-year-old
son Taylor.
All eventually were
released at the scene and allowed to take the elk home for butchering, but the
whole experience has left them wondering why the tribal police handled the
incident the way they did.
According to Washington
and Jefferson County law enforcement officials, Phipps was in full compliance
with state and local laws on hunting and the use of firearms.
“I shot the animal
pure legal,” said Phipps, 48, of Shelton. He’s been hunting since he was 9
years old, he said, and this year won a rare “elk permit” issued by
Washington Fish and Game.
to the private property where elk were grazing around noon on Oct. 3. The elk were between U.S. 101 and
the Hood Canal, across from the Bayshore Motel.
Boling said he and his
son watched from a distance as Phipps shot the bull elk with a muzzleloader, an
antique-style firearm legal for this specific hunting season and location,
according to a state fish and wildlife official.
After the elk was felled,
the men loaded it into Boling’s Toyota pickup and started to drive up the dirt
road toward the highway when two tribal officers approached them with their
weapons drawn. One was holding a pistol and the other an AR 15 assault rifle,
said Boling.
“When a man is
walking at you pointing a gun at you, you don’t know what to think,” said
Phipps.
“I tried to explain
to him, I don’t know how many times,” Phipps continued. “I’m in the
shooting area. He kept screaming ‘no it’s not – we have a report you shot it
with a high powered rifle.”
The officers made the
hunters lie prone on the ground. Boling tried to get up to grab his son, who
had hidden behind the truck, but the officers wouldn’t let him, he said.
“What makes me
maddest is what they did to that child,” Phipps said. “They pointed
[their guns] at everyone who was out there helping me.”
“They hand-cuffed
all three of us,” Boling said, and told them to “Be quiet.”
While in custody, a
friend ran to the Brinnon General Store, grabbed a copy of the state hunting
regulation book, and brought it to the scene. Boling said that helped convince
the officers that the hunt was legal.
But then, Boling said,
they were told they were in a “no shooting” zone and perhaps
“recklessly” shooting. The hunting party had permission from the
property owner, Boling said, and he’d been hunting there for years.
“We waited for an
hour for the elk to get to a safe spot,” Boling said. Although a
muzzleloader has a range of only a hundred yards or so, Phipps was nonetheless
aiming toward Hood Canal, not the highway or nearby homes, he said.
“I felt
helpless,” Boling said of not being able to comfort his son, who ran and
hid behind the truck. “I was worried he would be shot.”
Boling said he had his
own unloaded rifle and shotgun in his truck. He had used it recently for bear
hunting, but did not take it out while Phipps was hunting elk.
Joined by a Jefferson
County deputy and a WSP trooper, the tribal officers took all three weapons and
placed them on the ground as a crowd gathered to watch from the highway. The
weapons were given back when the the handcuffed men were released.
The incident left the men
upset and angry.
Despite being held for
two hours, they were able to take the elk to Boling’s house to gut it, and then
to a butcher to prepare it before it would have spoiled, Boling said, although
that had become a concern.
“What these guys did
was absolutely wrong,” said Boling. “It devastated my little
kid.”
“I’m going to
question the whole thing.” said Phipps. “If I had to do it all over
again, I probably wouldn’t do it,” he said of the rare chance to use a
muzzle-loader elk permit.
Charges pending?
Paul McCollum, director
of Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe Natural Resources Department said Tuesday that
he had not yet seen the incident report from the responding officers, Cap. Gus
Goller and Officer Dale Clark.
McCollum was unable to
say what prompted his officers’ response, though he noted there were a lot of
cars on the side of the road as people watched the elk. The tribe has fishing
and hunting rights that extend far beyond Kingston and Port Gamble, he said,
and its enforcement officers are routinely in the Hood Canal vicinity.
McCollum said the hunters
could face charges once his agency’s report is reviewed by state officials.
Those charges could
include both hunting and firearm violations, he said. “That area is a
non-shooting area, I believe,” said McCollum. He said that while the
hunters claimed permission from the property owner, the owner is an elderly man
who may have been confused.
Sgt. Phil Henry from
Washington Fish and Game said he was not on duty the day of the incident.
However, he confirmed that an “Elk special permit” hunting season is
under way from Oct. 3 – 11 in that area for those who were issued permits in a
drawing. This particular hunt is limited to muzzleloaders, not modern rifles.
In addition Henry said,
the area on the east side of Highway 101, behind the Brinnon store, is open to
the discharge of firearms per Sec. 8.50.130 of the Jefferson County Code. The
area closed to firearms use is between the highway and the Bonneville power
lines, and runs from Dosewallips River Road to the Dosewallips River.
“There was no
hunting violation,” Henry said. “There was no shooting
violation.”
“I cannot speak to
the issue of reckless endangerment because I wasn’t there, and I have not
talked to the Jefferson County deputy that investigated the scene,” Henry
added.
Jefferson County Sheriff
Tony Hernandez said his agency only responded to assist the tribal officers,
and as of Monday afternoon, it was unclear to him why tribal officers were
there or why anyone was detained. The hunters were acting “legally,”
he said.
Photos by Jay Cline
