PORT ORCHARD, Wash. — A Port Orchard man charged with fatally shooting a driver he believed was stealing mail in his neighborhood claims the victim tried to run him over, according to court documents.
Chad Michael Landon Wilson, 39, was charged with the first-degree murder of Richard Utaifeau Taii.
In court documents, Wilson did not deny that he fired the shot at an SUV believed to contain mail thieves but said he fired the shot in self-defense.
Police said the shooting happened shortly before midnight on Monday as Taii, who was driving his girlfriend’s Chevrolet Tahoe, was trying to turn around in a cul-de-sac about a mile away from Wilson’s home.
Taii’s girlfriend said she and a female friend had come from Tacoma to pick up Taii from the Kitsap County Jail, and then the three spent time at Walmart and a 7-Eleven before Taii started driving around neighborhoods, saying he knew the way to the freeway.
She told detectives they pulled up next to a large house and because her front passenger’s side window was open, she opened and closed the mailbox, but no one else in the Tahoe had done so while they were driving around.
She said shortly after, a pickup sped up behind them as Taii was trying to turn around in a cul-de-sac on Brady Place, about a mile away from where Wilson lives. Prosecutors said that Wilson was behind the wheel of the pickup.
The moments before the shooting were recorded by several neighbors’ surveillance cameras, as well as the sound of man screaming he wanted his mail back and the sound of a gunshot.
But there are different versions of what exactly happened in the cul-de-sac right before Taii was shot.
Wilson told Kitsap County detectives he was sitting in his living room when he saw an unfamiliar SUV pull onto his street. Due to recent mail thefts in his neighborhood, he watched it closely and saw the Tahoe’s front passenger opening mailboxes as it slowly continued down the street.
A deputy searching for Wilson’s truck after the shooting noted there were open mailboxes on the street where Wilson lived, and Wilson’s own mailbox was open, court papers said.
According to probable cause documents, Wilson told detectives he decided to confront the people in the SUV, concerned they had stolen a $1,500 check he’d been waiting for. He ran outside to talk to them, but was unable to get their attention, so he ran back inside, got his keys, and began following them in his pickup.
Wilson said he began honking his horn as the SUV continued onto Brady Place and toward the cul-de-sac. As the SUV began turning around in the cul-de-sac, Wilson angled his truck across the road to prevent the SUV from leaving.
He then got out of his truck, armed with a 9mm handgun. With the gun in hand, he began waving both of his arms over his head to get the SUV to stop.
Documents say that Wilson told detectives the SUV then sped toward him, and fearing that he would be run over, he fired a single shot into the SUV as it passed by, about 2 feet from where he was standing.
The victim’s girlfriend, however, told police that Taii was trying to drive around Wilson’s truck when Wilson got out of his truck and fired at the SUV.
Because Taii was hit in the head by the gunshot, his girlfriend grabbed the wheel of her Tahoe and steered it until it came to a stop, document said. She then called 911 to report her boyfriend had been shot and that she believed he was dead.
Prosecutors say Wilson told detectives he believed his gunshot had struck someone in the SUV based on how the Tahoe drove after he fired the shot. After the shooting, he then went home and put the gun in a safe.
Deputies said at least one piece of mail from the street where Wilson leaves could be seen inside the Tahoe.
After interviewing Wilson, he was arrested for Taii’s murder.
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