Posted on 06/04/2009 2:38:58 PM PDT by Rinnwald
VERLOT -- The Snohomish County Medical Examiner on Tuesday identified Daniel L. Wasilchen as the man killed by deputies Friday night.
Wasilchen, 44, died from multiple gunshot wounds to his torso, the medical examiner said. His death was ruled a homicide.
The shooting apparently was linked to a disagreement over removal of noxious weeds on Wasilchen's property.
The county's noxious weed coordinator reportedly was going door-to-door Friday seeking homeowner permission to use an herbicide.
Wasilchen became confrontational and threatened to get a gun, officials said. The weed coordinator called 911.
(Excerpt) Read more at heraldnet.com ...

You need a permit to save rain water off your roof too.
Seriously.
That is part of why I am moving to Kentucky.
...ain’t just WA (caugh, hurl)
Sounds like a cushy government job...’county noxious weed regulator’.
Good grief....(eye roll). Can we get a federal noxious president regulator?
He was killed because he threatened police with a gun.
If the homeowner was being asked permission to spray and the homeowner said no then the regulator should have just moved on. Verlot is just outside of Granite Falls on a road that leads to the best hiking country in Washington - The Cascades. Lots of people there are very insular, don’t like intrusions into their lives by anyone, esp. state government. I’ll bet the noxious weed to be sprayed was scotch broom. But the stuff is planted by the state all along highways for erosion control. Can’t think of any other noxious weed (thorn bushes???) that needs state intervention to control.
“Can we get a federal noxious president regulator?”
No, but the noxious president will probably appoint a Noxious Weed Czar!
An agency like that came to my friends property here on Maui (ten acre mini farm) and asked if they could check for those kinds of plants but were real nice and he said yes. He went around with them and they pointed out to him which plants needed to be killed. They said with his permission they would come do it or they would tell him what to spray on them and which plants to spray. No problems at all.
Did you know noxious weeds on one person’s property can do damage to someone else’s?
I have an empty lot next to me. It is covered with tumbleweeds. Who owns it is in dispute, since the company trying to sell it went into bankruptcy and the lot was used to secure several overlapping loans (without the knowledge of the loaners!).
Those tumbleweeds cover MY lot with seeds, that are damn hard to get rid of. I’d LOVE someone from the County to just give me permission to go on the land and spray the weeds!
LOL!!
Joy...just what we need...another CZAR!
Weed kills. Don’t grow it. Don’t smoke it. Don’t protect it. They will kill you dead if you do.
You should read the post on the like. Seems the weed regulator (Sonny) has a power trip.
And the deceased used very poor judgment in allegedly retrieving his weapon given the circumstances (read the comments at the article -- interesting).
From the comments: “The Noxious weed representative (Sonny) has been sporting this attitude for years. His protocol is to drive up onto home owners’ property with his intrusive, officious personality threatening the home owner with penalties...... Yes, you get the big government dissertation from the county weeder. “
Go read the pages at the papers web site, apparently this particular enforcment officer has been a jacka$$ for a long time. I really doubt this home owner would have escalated this had this guy not knowingly and intentionally pushed his buttons.
Guy tells you to get off your property, you back away and get in your car and leave... obviously this particular person didn’t, got further in his face, escalated this, called 911 etc etc etc. This guy is a pissant bureaucrat addicted to his own power, little man with a gubment badge who never got put in his place.
I routinely have to deal with such enforcement officers, and nearly every one of them I deal with doesn’t think or act like they are weed police, but that they are the thin blue line between civilization and chaos.
This was ruled a HOMOCIDE, correctly and hopefully the DA will press charges, and the family of this man will destroy these folks and the county in civil court for having such a scumbag on their payroll.
yeah, the guy came back with the cops ... the cops said to drop the weapon followed by four quick pops from their gun. No reasoning, nothing. Just shot him.
Or the official was just doing his job.
It was the victim who decided he wanted a fight to the death over it.
“He was killed because he threatened police with a gun.”
How do you know that? Were you there? A gun in hand is legal. No where in the article did it say he threatened police.
Butterfly trees are considered noxious but they sell them in nurseries. Go figure.
From the official county website:
The Snohomish County Noxious Weed Control Board
H.F. “Sonny” Gohrman, Coordinator
sonny.gohrman@co.snohomish.wa.us
Phone: (360) 435-7830, (360) 708-8166 (cell) or 1-(800) 562-4367
26718B 115th Ave. NE
Arlington, WA 98223
FAX #: (425) 388-7149
I take it by your responses you won’t protect your property. Can I get your address? I won’t tell anybody. Do you have any nice stuff?
Where we used to live, a neighbor got high on something and naked, holding a pistol, was jumping and down on the diving board of his pool.
Someone called the cops, probably his wife. He threatened them and they shot him dead. That’s what happens when you threaten the cops with a firearm.
Nope, the reports never say the man had a gun at the get go.. this incident clearly was needless escalated, when a property owner tells you to get off your property, you leave, period.
Unless you have a warrant for their arrest, or a warrant to search the property, you have absolutely no right to continue to be there. If the official was “just doing his job” he would have left the minute he was asked to leave, clearly he didn’t. If you think otherwise, you are living in la la land.
He not only continued to remain on the property, but remained there called 911, stayed there until the patrolman arrived, etc etc etc. You simply get in your car and you leave!
The link seems to say little man Sonny came screeching first in the driveway with police in tow.
QFT. I am against government regulation. The weed ordinance may be stupid and/or a violation of private property rights. However, pulling a gun on the police isn't the answer.
They sell scotch broom seeds to people in Tenn. for erosion control but here it’s considered a noxious weed unless the state plants it on the highway .... it’s also a hallucinogenic in that the aroma off the flowers can make you high if you’re in a big field of them.
Sounds like someone in Washington needs to give a stern talking to, to this weed idiot.
Except when he was threatening people with a gun.
Well I hope he is ruined, criminal and civil cases destroy this peeon. I hope the county has to pay a penalty so damned large that they’ll actually bother to reign in these sorts of idiots.
I deal with these code enforcement folks routinely, the overwhelming majority of them are compensating.
Noxious weed czar. Your papers, please.
He was killed because he threatened police with a gun.
Could be, but where did you read that?
Um, just go spray if it means that much to you. If the ownership is in dispute I'm sure nobody will call the cops.
I can hear it now, "Hello. 911." "Operator! Send the cops! Quick! There is a man on the empty lot across the street and HE'S SPRAYING!!!!!!"
Apparently, your powers as Weed Lord allow you to enter any property in the state; the Governor’s mansion, Bill Gates’yard, nuclear weapons sites. The pissants who write these laws are long past tarring and feathering. From the Revised Code of Washington:
RCW 17.10.160
Right of entry Warrant for noxious weed search Civil liability Penalty for preventing entry.
Any authorized agent or employee of the county noxious weed control board or of the state noxious weed control board or of the department of agriculture where not otherwise proscribed by law may enter upon any property for the purpose of administering this chapter and any power exercisable pursuant thereto, including the taking of specimens of weeds, general inspection, and the performance of eradication or control work. Prior to carrying out the purpose for which the entry is made, the official making such entry or someone in his or her behalf, shall make a reasonable attempt to notify the owner of the property as to the purpose and need for the entry.
(1) When there is probable cause to believe that there is property within this state not otherwise exempt from process or execution upon which noxious weeds are standing or growing and the owner refuses permission to inspect the property, a judge of the superior court or district court in the county in which the property is located may, upon the request of the county noxious weed control board or its agent, issue a warrant directed to the board or agent authorizing the taking of specimens of weeds or other materials, general inspection, and the performance of eradication or control work.
(2) Application for issuance and execution and return of the warrant authorized by this section shall be in accordance with the applicable rules of the superior court or the district courts.
(3) Nothing in this section requires the application for and issuance of any warrant not otherwise required by law: PROVIDED, That civil liability for negligence shall lie in any case in which entry and any of the activities connected therewith are not undertaken with reasonable care.
(4) Any person who improperly prevents or threatens to prevent entry upon land as authorized in this section or any person who interferes with the carrying out of this chapter shall be upon conviction guilty of a misdemeanor.
Yeah, because website posting are inherently reliable...
Guy tells you to get off your property, you back away and get in your car and leave... obviously this particular person didnt, got further in his face, escalated this, called 911 etc etc etc. This guy is a pissant bureaucrat addicted to his own power, little man with a gubment badge who never got put in his place.
You seem to have firsthand knowledge of the situation. Are you Daniel's brother?
I routinely have to deal with such enforcement officers, and nearly every one of them I deal with doesnt think or act like they are weed police, but that they are the thin blue line between civilization and chaos.
I hope you don't pull a gun on these people.
This was ruled a HOMOCIDE, correctly and hopefully the DA will press charges, and the family of this man will destroy these folks and the county in civil court for having such a scumbag on their payroll.
What's a HOMOCIDE?
In any case you should realize what the word "homicide" actually means. Then learn the word, "justifiable." Perhaps you might even learn to link them together.
To all you ‘law and order’ types who are defending the actions of the county officials, let me ask you- how do you think Thomas Jefferson or George Washington would have reacted if some jagoff government weed sprayer with a Napoleon complex came rolling up on their land making a bunch of pushy demands?
“We just smiled and waved....sittin’ on that sack of seeds.....Y’all come back now y’hear.”
Does the plant affect noxious-weed coordinators more than the rest of us?
You haven’t met my neighbors!
They filed 5 complaints against me in 2 years, none of which were found valid. The good news is that the County has gotten tired of their invalid complaints, so I could probably do anything I wanted now.
I’m actually waiting for the weeds to hit their high growth stage, when the spray will do the most good.
“Noxious Weed Coordinator”? Just another excuse to trespass!
What you don't have is a right to do is get a gun and point it at city officials, no matter who they are, even weed control officials. I won't jump to any conclusion and say he was "murdered" intil I saw all the facts. If the guy was a barking moonbat pointing a weapon at police, then he probably got what he asked for.
If you're not allergic, as many people are, and die first.
The sort of response you are replying to is why I am not a conservative. The man was killed because WA has a property rights violating, privacy rights violating, fascistic government.FR has a number of posters who are auditioning for the role of “good serf”.
The wise patriot learned years ago that his "property" actually belongs to the State.
That's what the semi-annual rent is all about.
The correct course of action was to insist firmly that the little Himmler was mistaken about his intended plan.
When the little Himmler then rode roughshod over the "property" owner's rights, he figures out where the jackboot lives, and wait a suitable length of time for a return visit. The interest on those kind of loans is painful. ;-)
Hahaha interesting handle to a guy who obviously doesn’t understand the concept.
This morons own story is that he was chased off the property, then came back with cops in tow. Did he have a warrant to return? Nope. Did he have a need to return other than his big old ego being bruised? Nope.
The guys an a$$ whos full of himself who decided that he wasn’t going to dare have his authority questioned... A life sized Cartman if you will.
This idiots also admitted that the gun was never pointed at the police, so so much for threatening the cops.
So, if the guy you are trying to defend has already admitted all of this, what argument are you going to try to use now?
The guy should have gotten into his car and left, if he wanted to come back to spray the weeds, he should have gone through the court process to get the warrant to do so, he didn’t he went and grabbed a few cops and came immediately back because he couldn’t stand having someone tell him no.
This guys had a history of running over folks with his “authority” or trying to, this isn’t a story of Andy Griffith shows up to return a lost dog and property owner shoots him in the back, this is clearly an incident where a little man high on his own petty power decided he was not going to respect anything but his own desires.
I am sure the county had complaints about “little man” Sonny but turned the other cheek. The people involved were on the Govt payroll and on private property.
Well, if he showed up with a bunch of British soldiers, they probably wouldn't have stuffed a flintlock in the weed control officer's face...
Article says the guy became Wasilchen became confrontational and threatened to get a gun, officials said. The weed coordinator called 911.
To report the threat I imagine. Sounds like the guy became confrontational with the police as well, armed with his gun.
That's something you just don't do, no matter where you live, or how "insular" you think you have a right to be.
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