BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, Wash. (AP) - Authorities identified a man who they say had been randomly firing shots toward shoreline homes from a sailboat in Puget Sound in Washington state hours before officers shot and killed him.
Robert D. Yeiser, 34, started firing rounds toward shore at about 8:30 p.m. Saturday in Eagle Harbor, the Washington State Patrol said Monday.
Multiple law enforcement agencies spent hours on the water attempting to end the incident peacefully before Yeiser pointed a weapon at approaching officers and they opened fire, according to the state patrol.
Authorities haven’t named the officers involved in the fatal shooting.
No one else was injured in the incident that prompted authorities to tell shoreline residents to stay inside and caused a disruption in ferry service between Seattle and Bainbridge island.
Yeiser’s life appears to have been unraveling since last summer after he apparently lost his job at Amazon, was evicted from his boat moorage and sued by his landlord and then arrested by Seattle police for driving drunk, The Seattle Times reported (https://goo.gl/hp1RBv ).
He claimed in an October court declaration that he suffered from depression, was broke and that his bicycle had been stolen, according to records in a civil case filed by his landlord.
Efforts by the newspaper to reach Yeiser’s family in Ohio were not immediately successful.
The state patrol is asking witnesses to contact Detective Sgt. Mark Wilson at 360-473-0141 or at mark.wilson@wsp.wa.gov.
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