Two wounded sheriff’s deputies and a dozen other law enforcement officers filled a small Whatcom County courtroom Friday morning to watch Joel Berck Young plead not guilty to two counts of attempted murder and other charges.
Young, 60, is accused of shooting Whatcom County deputies Ryan Rathbun and Jason Thompson on Feb. 10 outside Young’s Maple Falls home, and endangering the lives of several neighbors.
The two deputies were responding to 911 calls reporting a man firing his shotgun on Green Valley Drive, according to a Bellingham police report. After the deputies arrived, Young walked outside his house and shot Thompson first, while he was near the neighbor’s garage. Rathbun returned fire, and Young struck him with birdshot as well, according to the police report.
Deputies determined that Young was intoxicated, and during a police interview the defendant said he had been drinking vodka that day, according to police.
Both deputies were eventually treated at hospitals for head wounds, but both continued to engage the shooter until backups arrived, Sheriff Bill Elfo said in an interview.
Injured Whatcom County Sheriff’s deputy Ryan Rathbun attends the arraignment of Joel Young Feb. 18 in a county courtroom. (Hailey Hoffman/Cascadia Daily News)
“We’re very grateful that the deputies survived this deadly attack,” Elfo said. “From my perspective, they performed incredibly well … They stayed in the fight, just as they are trained to do.”
Young appeared at the hearing on a video monitor from Skagit County Jail, wearing red jail scrubs and a disposable blue face mask. One of the injured deputies, wearing an eye patch, shook his head slightly when Young’s attorney said his client objected to a court order to turn in his firearms. Public defender Kurt Parrish argued that the order violated Young’s Fifth and 14th Amendment rights.
Commissioner Ann Vetter-Hansen, presiding over the hearing, agreed to hear arguments about surrendering the firearms on a separate date, while reminding Young that, for now, he remained under orders to do so. Young remains in jail in lieu of $5 million bail.
Prosecutor Eric Richey added nine new charges against Young on Thursday. In addition to two counts of attempted murder, Young is charged with assault in the first degree, assault in the second degree, felony harassment and six counts of reckless endangerment.
The first-degree assault charge stems from an injury police say one of Young’s neighbors suffered after Young shot Rathburn. A piece of gravel or birdshot struck the neighbor in the face, according to police. The charge of second-degree assault resulted from Young pointing his shotgun at a female neighbor, per the police report. He also threatened to kill a neighbor if police were called, the report said. The threat prompted the felony harassment charge.
The six counts of reckless endangerment were based on the police’s account of Young firing his shotgun in the direction of several neighbors, including two children.
Young’s next court hearing is scheduled for March 16, with a trial date of April 11. However, the trial date is likely to change.
Whatcom Superior Court Judge Robert Olson was originally assigned Young’s case, but he was recused because of a conflict of interest, according to court records. Judge Lee Grochmal will hear the case instead.
