PORT ANGELES, Wash — A man suspected of shooting two sex offenders to death on the Olympic Peninsula left a note saying he hated sex offenders and "it had to be done," the Clallam County sheriff said on Monday. He planned to kill a sex offender in Jefferson County and keep killing until law enforcement stopped him, according to court documents.
Investigators say Patrick Drum, 34, shot Gary Lee Blanton, 28, on Saturday night at a home Drum was renting near Sequim. Blanton was renting a room in the home.
Drum then drove to the home of Jerry Wayne Ray, 57, in the Agnew area near Port Angeles where Ray was killed early Sunday morning, Clallam County Sheriff Bill Benedict said.
For some reason, authorities say, Drum abandoned a rental car he had been driving and was seen on foot in the remote area of the northern Olympic Peninsula. Reports of a suspicious man in the area Sunday led deputies to respond. They found the car and the note inside that led to the victims and identified Drum as a suspect.
The note was "apologizing to police for what he had done," Benedict said, and it said, "It had to be done."
"He took full responsibility for `taking care of some problems,"' Benedict said Monday.
Drum knew both men were sex offenders. Both were shot multiple times, the sheriff said.
Dozens of officers responded to the area. Drum was tracked down by a dog team and flushed out of a wooded area by a Customs and Border Protection helicopter Sunday after a manhunt that lasted more than three hours. He was armed with a 9mm pistol, Benedict said.
Drum was jailed in Port Angeles for investigation of murder. At a court appearance on Monday, Drum appeared bored and said that he wanted to represent himself, said KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reporter Lee Stoll. A judge appointed a lawyer for him because he could face the death penalty, Stoll said.
The judge ruled that Drum would remain in jail with no bail after prosecutors argued that supporters of vigilante justice could help him if he ran.
Drum has an extensive criminal record and is known to police in Sequim and Port Angeles as well as to Clallam County deputies, Benedict said.
The sheriff wouldn't speculate on what prompted the shootings over the weekend.
"It appears in my mind what went on was somewhat planned," he said.
"Both victims were registered sex offenders (level II) and evidence at both crime scenes indicates that Drum had a particular animus towards sex offenders," a news release issued by the sheriff's office on Sunday said.
Blanton was convicted in the rape of a 17-year-old girl in 2001. He was charged with child abuse last June.
Ray was convicted in August 2002 of child rape.
KIRO
