By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – A man deer hunting just outside the Centralia city limits was arrested yesterday after one of several rounds he fired burst through the window of a house, traveling through a bookcase, a wall and across a hallway, lodging inside a closet where it shattered a six-pack of prune juice.
A couple in their mid-70s who were home at the time were unhurt.
Deputies were called about 7:40 a.m. by the residents who indicated a bullet had just been fired into their house, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.
They contacted 62-year-old Royce R. Larson who said he was hunting, had killed a deer but did not realize there was a home there, according to the sheriff’s office.
The incident happened at the 100 block of Summerside Drive, near the northwest edge of town.
“Yeah, scary stuff,” Lewis County sheriff’s Cmdr. Dusty Breen said. “That’s why one of the foremost safety rules is be aware of what your target is and what’s beyond.”
Larson was issued a citation for reckless endangerment, his rifle was seized and and then he was released, according to Breen.
It’s something that’s happened a handful of times in his time with the sheriff’s office, Breen said.
Later in the day, it happened again in central Lewis County.
A 52-year-old woman inadvertently shot through a bathroom window striking a refrigerator in a Mossyrock area kitchen.
Deputies were called at about 4:30 p.m. to the 100 block of Bear Ridge Road near the western edge of Riffe Lake after a 55-year-old found the damage, according to the sheriff’s office. It was inside an apartment he’d built in a shop building, according to Breen.
Karen L. McDougall was contacted and said she’d been trying to shoot a deer. In speaking with her, it became clear she was the one who fired rounds in the direction of the victim’s property, but did not realize she was putting persons or property at risk, Breen said.
The Mossyrock woman too was arrested for reckless endangerment, issued her citation and a date for court and then released, according to Breen. Her firearm was also confiscated.
There wasn’t anything else illegal about what the two had done, according to Breen.
It’s Lewis County, you’ve got rural areas, he said.
“Both seemed like normal good citizens, who just exercised bad judgement,” he said. “That’s why they weren’t booked.”