I’m getting word over email that the homeowner involved in this morning’s shooting in Kirkland is Steve Sarich. Sarich is a very prominent – but also very controversial – figure in the medical marijuana community. Last week, after a 38-year-old medical marijuana patient named Mike Howard was beaten to death during an alleged robbery attempt, Sarich sent the following email to both state legislators and the media:
I just posted this on our patient forum. We’ll be giving the story to the news agencies on Monday. I just thought you should know that this is what we face and why patients constantly live in fear. We not only have to fear being robbed, but we have to fear what will happen when law enforcement shows up to “investigate”. When my home was invaded recently, at 3:30 am, they wanted to look at my plants and wanted to see a copy of my business license. They conducted no investigation whatsoever. They came back a few days later and I didn’t even bother to call police. What happened to Mike Howard to could happen to me, or any other patient in Washington as long as we can’t trust the police to do their jobs.
This is beyond disturbing. Please help us in calling for a serious investigation into the murder of Mike Howard, including the criminal conduct of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department.
Steve Sarich
Executive Director
CannaCareI’m very, very sorry to report that our patient and good friend, Mike Howard, age 38, died last night of the injuries that he suffered during the home invasion on his garden on March 9th. His heart stopped 5 times last night and they were finally unable to restart it.
Mike had his face crushed with a crow bar that the murders were using to pry the plywood off the side of his shed so that they could rob his small garden in Orting, WA. Mike was conscious for a short time and told Rene, his room mate, that he never saw his attackers.
Mike was a CannaCare patient and posted here on the forum. Mike was a great guy with a big heart. He was a contractor and volunteered countless hours around here. He was also a well known dog breeder (which is where we got or dog “Nala”…who most of you have met).
This is now a murder AND robbery case. He was murdered by animals who knew that marijuana patients NEVER get help from law enforcement. While he was in a coma, dying, he was robbed again by the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department who came back to cut down his small garden and terrorized Rene, who is only 19.
This is the same law enforcement agency that, “oops”, forgot to take the murder weapon with them the night Mike was brutally attacked. They took no fingerprints. They took no photos. There was no investigation. Now that they’ve raided Mike’s home, they have undoubtedly contaminated the crime scene, making any real investigation of his murder all but impossible.
Are the police sending a message that it’s “open season” on patients here in Washington? Are they confirming that it’s “OK” to murder us and that we can’t expect to get any help from them? What are we to think? Since the Fry decision, raids on patients have increased exponentially.
I will not let this one slip through the cracks. The press needs to let the public know that this is how we are treated by LEO, even though we’re completely legal.
UPDATE: More information is online about the murder of medical marijuana patient Mike Howard last week. Here’s a discussion that took place last week while Howard was still hospitalized. And the Cannabis Defense Coalition has a page up on their site about him. Right now, I want to make it clear that the allegations in all of these posts are still uncorroborated.
UDPATE 2: Gene Johnson at the AP has spoken with Sarich and has a premilinary report up here.
UPDATE 3: Casey McNerthney at the PI has much more detail, including a video of Sarich after the shooting.
Looks like being a gun owner has it’s benefits.
“…and the robber may have been after medical marijuana.”
Yet again, another great reason to just make marijuana legal so folks don’t have to break in and rob/kill folks, but can just buy it along with their Vodka and cigarettes. Or maybe it’s supernaturally magically evil and the plant is inhabited by demons. Or not.
And yes, also a good reason to be an armed homeowner. I’m a gay liberal, but a midwest Iowa boy, so I have several firearms and a concealed carry permit.
Lee–
If your buddy wasn’t armed, he would be D-E-A-D. I am a lifetime NRA member. There are actually lots of Libs who are members. As Obam-Mao and the Dummocrats try to disarm law-abiding Americans, you 2nd Amendment mouth-breathing Libs might want to join!
The Progressive Lunatics want you to give up your guns and live in Pollyanna where only criminals have guns.
So legalizing pot will make it so no one will rob someone to get free pot????
Hardly.
@3
If you were capable of reading comprehension, you’d know that I’ve long been a strong supporter of private gun ownership (and so is Obama).
@4 re 3: We wouldn’t want the Klynically insane to the only ones armed, would we?
Cynical @3,
Or, perhaps, if the guy had not been armed, there would have been no shoot-out, and the burglar would have just taken what he came for, and nobody would have gotten hurt? You don’t really know if the gun saved this guy’s life, or imperiled it, do you?
Link:
http://www.bellinghamherald.co.....dical.html
And good for the homeowner!
@3 He almost wound up dead anyway–he was just a little bit better (or luckier) shot than the other guy. It’s also possible that the intruder might not have opened fire if Sarich hadn’t had a weapon. We’ll never know, of course, because the dead don’t explain themselves very well.
Also @3:
“I am a lifetime NRA member.”
Why am I not surprised?
“There are actually lots of Libs who are members.”
Ummm, yeah. Like Michael Moore, perhaps?
@3
Can you point to a single statement made by President Obama (damn, that phrase must be tough for you to deal with) that substatiates your paranoia?
I have a couple handguns. I haven’t had any trouble buying rounds nor has anyone tried to take them from me.
Liberals must arm!
Goldy,
Why do you suppose the “poor” burgler had a gun?
To “defend” himself from the ruthless home ownwer?
Give me a break….
Maybe that poor burglar should have been offered a starbucks and shopping cart to assisit his “taking”
Then no one would have died.
Two things…
Point #1 – To you gun haters, it would have been better if Sanich was unarmed and may have met death if the guy recognized Sanich? Somehow this doesn’t compute… unless of course you are a brain dead libtardo.
Point #2 – Looks like memory refreshers are needed.
That should shut up the moronic chechsez for a microsecond.
Obam-Mao and Gun Control–
Obam-Mao has quite an extensive anti-gun background..IF YOU’LL OPEN YOUR EYES!!
http://www.nraila.org/news/rea.....x?ID=10620
And————-
How many more examples do you need czech??
Obam-Mao has–
Supported banning hundreds of rifles and shotguns commonly used for hunting and sport shooting.
Voted to allow “reckless” lawsuits designed to put the firearms industry out of business.
Voted to allow the prosecution of citizens who use a firearm for self-defense in the home.
Supported increasing taxes on firearms and ammunition by 500 percent.
Voted to ban virtually all rifle ammunition commonly used for hunting and sport shooting.
Became a member of the board of directors of the radically anti-gun Joyce Foundation.
Said in 1996 that he supported a complete handgun ban in a questionnaire from the Independent Voters of Illinois.
Proposed a ban on gun stores within five miles of any school or park.
Stated his support for gun owner licensing and firearm registration.
Voted for one-gun-a-month handgun purchase limits.
Voted against confirming pro-Second Amendment justices to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Oh my Odumba’s voting record on gun ownership…
Maybe this will shut up checksez for a millisecond.
Word to the wise: If you click the link that Pudpuller includes @17, it goes to a vid produced by the RNC/GOP.
Serpriiiiize, serpriiiize: a clumsy, amateur liar sources to the professional liars! Whodathunk?
Man this Zotz idiot will always look at the source just like ylb arschloch. Well Puddy does call him a dumb brick, so Puddy guesses Zotz is another in the long line of dumb brick progressives.
Zotz arschloch, can you disprove any of the facts? Didn’t think so.
Whatamoron! And this fool thinks he’s “wise”. EPIC FAIL!
ButtPutty @19, a wise person always considers the source. Like, for instance, with you we know the smell of shit surrounds you. Ooh, ohh, that smell!
http://www.factcheck.org/elect.....obama.html
Try again on many, many points…
Armor piercing ammo is used to hunt? Getting an elk into a flack jacket must be hard.
Right, so two supreme court justices with which most Democrats had hundreds of confirmation problems, went on to vote in favor of gun rights. Obama voted no on confirmation so Obama is against guns. Got it.
So….Kelso vs. City of New London. Gerald Ford, St. Ronald Reagon, Bush the Smarter, and Bill Clinton will personally come and take your property from you.
Roe v. Wade, if he were alive today, Richard Nixon would be coming to personally take that fetus out of you.
Paranoia leads to irrational conclutions.
Ekim, known goat fucker randomly appears, makes a fool of himself, then disappears.
Too bad his disappearance isn’t for good!
Well ekim, Puddy knows you trusted the source; Kos, TPM, Media Matters when they claimed Trigg Palin was Bristol Palin’s baby. Wrong trust fool!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Yep, that’s our Stupesy!
Sorry ButtPutty, I don’t do goats. You are projecting again about your own goat fetishes. Speaking of which, why do you favor the male goats? No, never mind. I *really* don’t want to know.
Ohh, ooh, that smell…
@21
Nicely done. Reality means jack to those two clowns. Even though I tend to agree with them on a lot of gun control issues, their paranoia and their willingness to get suckered by special interest propaganda is truly amusing.
Us gun haters???
Most of us are gun rights supporters and the rest aren’t “gun haters” , they (and we, really) are just concerned about the level of gun violence in America and are trying to find solutions for it. Don’t like it? Then maybe you should try coming up with a solution that actually solves something, rather than just sputtering nonsense.
Btw, what would you all be saying if the round that missed killed a neighbor kid?
There’s a town in Georgia that has had very positive results in reducing shootings since requiring every household to own a gun.
25 years murder free
26. Michael spews:
So take guns away from law-abiding citizens??
Yeah, that will really help.
Look, Obam-Mao has both a voting & anti-gun rhetoric history. He has gotten quiet about it in recent months. So what. The record is clear on what he believes.
If Obam-Mao were such a pro-2nd Amendment Guy, the NRA would have supported him or been neutral. There are lots of pro-2nd Amendment Democrats the NRA has supported.
Obam-Mao ain’t one of them for the reasons outlined.
czech tries to use a leftist “fact-check” that tries to re-write Obam-Mao’s history on Guns and Gun Ownership.
No Sale.
@28 Simple Paranoia.
Being in favor of some common sense measures = they’re coming to take my guns.
Gun “fingerprint” identification = they’re coming to take my guns
Trigger Locks = they’re coming to take my guns
Minimum education requirement for purchase = they’re coming to take my guns
Bans on Ammo/weapons marketed specifically for their human killing ability = they’re coming to take my guns.
(Somehow the NRA is O.K. as a source, but factcheck is beyond the pale?)
A medical marijuana grower who uses a firearm to protect his property is asking for quite a bit of trouble.
As it is, police and prosecutors are looking for any reason to prosecute grow operators, so they would be inclined to arrest first, and ask questions later.
Secondly, given the uncertainty over the various laws relating to medical marijuana with respect to grow operations, it is possible the prosecutors could charge him with using a firearm in connection with a drug-related felony – thereby increasing the risks exponitionally with respect to the growing operation.
Finally, he is just as likely to end up confronting a plainclothes cop with his firearm as he is a criminal – with consequences which might be fatal to either the owner or the policeman.
@29: Czech: Nice points
You totally destroyed the idiot rightwingnuts. Banning armor piercing ammo is banning hunting weapons?
Only a complete moron and liar like Klynical would try to pass that one on.
Hahahaha
Yes, the NRA is the only credible source…but factcheck is not…that is the fantasy world of the rightwingnuts!
@28
Where did I mention Obama? I was talking about the folks on this site. Plus, he’s been in office a while now and where’s the groundswell to ban guns? It isn’t there and it wouldn’t work.
No one is trying to take guns away from law abiding citizens. We are, however, trying to find ways of lessening gun violence.
@29
You forgot banning ammo sales over the internet = they’re coming to take my guns.
Why don’t they just legislate home grower areas as “Gun Free” zones?
OMG!!! Those neo-monarchist liburls are after are guns!
ekim, You don’t do goats?
Could have fooled Puddy the way you brought up goats in earlier commentary. Puddy doesn’t do bestiality. Check with THE DUMB BUNNY. It’s up his “alley”.
Leftist Fools Everywhere… See post #1.
@37
Maybe that’s why half the folk on this blog own guns!
Dogs. Check. Handgun. Check. But no alarm – especially after already being burglarized once?
Anyway, I still can’t get over the fact that 24 ounces is considered a 60-day supply ….
@6 Goldy,
Using Goldy logic I presume you will put a sign in the front yard indicating the occupants have no firearms. The “logic” would dictate that in the event of a break in the perps will be less inclined to start shooting.
How did this degenerate in to an argument about guns? The 2nd Amendment has been upheld repeatedly by our courts, by both liberal and conservative justices alike. Despite that I personally feel we would better off if some assholes didn’t carry or handle weapons we just aren’t going change what is long establish law. To state that Obama and the Democrats are coming to take your guns is just extreme paranoia.