By Anna V. Smith

Journal reporter

Orcas Island resident Peter William Sherman, 27, has been charged with assault with a deadly weapon in the second degree for an incident on July 4 in Eastsound, Orcas Island. Bail was set at $10,000. Sherman is awaiting a trial set for Sept. 21.

Sherman allegedly pointed an Ithaca 20-gauge shotgun at three people after a verbal altercation with one of them. According to court documents the gun was not loaded, but witnesses said they did not know that at the time. Witnesses also said Sherman told one man he was going to kill him. According to the responding officer’s report, Sherman admitted he’d pointed the gun at the three people. He added that he had consuming alcohol, stating he had not been thinking straight.

Sherman initially called the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office to report a trespassing complaint at his home, saying he had asked a guest to leave and he wouldn’t leaving. By the time the officers arrived at the scene the guest had left. Sherman told the officers things were fine as long as the guest did not talk to him. The guest had been with two others in the driveway and had become agitated at the officers, shouting expletives at them and refusing to identify himself. According to the report: “At one point he advanced on [us]. We each grabbed one of his arms and pinned him against the back of the minivan. We asked him to calm down.” The guest said he would, but when released he continued his aggression. “I could see there was no reasoning with [the guest]. He never gave us a chance to talk with him.” The officers decided to leave to “diffuse the situation.”

According to the officer’s report about five minutes later Sherman called dispatch to say he had a gun and had pointed it at the guest.

The officers returned to the residence to find the guest walking down the driveway toward the patrol car yelling that “we were incompetent and worthless.”

When asked, Sherman said to one of the officers that he had been afraid the guest was going to assault him, and  had run to get the unloaded gun from his room. According to the witnesses, the guest and two witnesses had been standing together when Sherman pointed the unloaded gun at them and yelled at the guest, “I am going to kill you!”

One of the responding officers wrote that a witness told him, “Sherman is unpredictable with firearms when he has been drinking alcohol.” The witness could not remember a time when a similar incident had occurred with Sherman.

Assault with a deadly weapon in the second degree is a Class B felony for those without previous offenses.