By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The Olympian reports a 45-year-old man is jailed for an alleged threat to kill a Thurston County sheriff’s deputy he believed wrongly shot his friend dead 14 months ago in Littlerock.
News reporter Jeremy Pawloski writes that when Michael Kruegel was arrested at his Mima Road trailer home on Tuesday, he had in his possession guns, as well as photos of the deputy, the deputy’s personal vehicle and the deputy’s girlfriend.
The Nov. 2, 2012 shooting of Keith Miles, 26, was found to be justified, as the un-named deputy believed Miles was about to strike a deputy in the head with a pool cue, according to Pawloski.
Kruegel yesterday was ordered held on $100,000 bail, according to The Olympian.
Read more here
I’d be interested in knowing how he got the photos of the girlfriend, vehicle etc. Did he surveil the deputy? If so you can add stalking to that as well. Correct me if I am wrong but I believe it is illegal to threaten a public servant under nearly any circumstances any way.
So what did this turd think he was going to accomplish exactly? Avenge the death of his friend? Maybe his friend should have done what he was told. People are under the impression that they can do stupid crap, puff their chest out and threaten the police, bring a pool cue to a gunfight and then think that the cops should react with equal force….well, boys and girls, in the words of the great philosopher Spanky, “it just don’t work that way!” They ask; “why did they have to shoot him, he only had a pool cue?”….oh, I don’t know, why did he confront two police officers carrying a pool cue? Why as he confronting the police at all? Everything after that is on him…he set the tone of that contact and it could have ended differently, as the say, “but for his actions.” Now this idiot is going to go to jail as well. This tells me quite a bit about the caliber of people the dead man associated with… sheds a whole new light on the shooting.
Fair Enough.
Here’s the “Crime” he’s most likely accused of committing.
You don’t have to pull the trigger to commit a crime, just take a “substantial step toward the commission of that crime”. Putting together a photo spread and patterning your target after telling him “I’m going to kill you” would be a substantial step.
Even in Lewis County, it has nothing to do with owning a gun, but everything to do with planning a murder.
9A.28.020
Criminal attempt.
(1) A person is guilty of an attempt to commit a crime if, with intent to commit a specific crime, he or she does any act which is a substantial step toward the commission of that crime.
(2) If the conduct in which a person engages otherwise constitutes an attempt to commit a crime, it is no defense to a prosecution of such attempt that the crime charged to have been attempted was, under the attendant circumstances, factually or legally impossible of commission.
(3) An attempt to commit a crime is a:
(a) Class A felony when the crime attempted is murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree, arson in the first degree, child molestation in the first degree, indecent liberties by forcible compulsion, rape in the first degree, rape in the second degree, rape of a child in the first degree, or rape of a child in the second degree;
I believe in America, even in Lewis County, people have to actually commit a crime before they are arrested for the crime. If no crime has been committed, the person is not arrested. Could be charged with something else however such as making a threat; if he did. Investigated is something else however.
Free Air, sounds like the right path to me! It’s true that people do things when they are upset, angry, etc. but this sounds more like a logical, tactful, thought out plan to get revenge. Not a whim type of thing.
He should have his right to own firearms pulled, a restraining order and a GPS monitoring anklet for at least 25 years. He has demonstrated the will, ability and taken the first steps to commit a murder. Why wait for the trigger to get pulled?