Island County has agreed to pay $2.75 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a former U.S. Navy master chief who was shot while trying to help deputies subdue an armed sailor following a 2017 standoff.
Heath Garcia was shot in the foot with a high-powered rifle slung across the back of a deputy trying to arrest one of Garcia’s shipmates, Nicholas Perkins, who was drunk, suicidal and had barricaded himself in his house with several weapons, including a fully automatic rifle. A different deputy fatally shot Perkins shortly after the accidental shots rang out.
The lawsuit alleges the Island County Sheriff’s Office and its scene commander, Lt. Michael Hawley, were responsible for “state-created danger” and engaged in a “gross deviation” from standard police practices by creating a plan to apprehend Perkins that placed Garcia’s life at risk.
That plan, according to the lawsuit, involved agency officials allowing Garcia to enter the home to talk to his shipmate while armed deputies huddled outside.
The lawsuit alleges Garcia managed to persuade Perkins to give himself up despite his fear that he’d be shot if he went outside. Hawley, meanwhile, had promised deputies would back up and be out of sight, the lawsuit claims.
But when Perkins exited the house, he saw deputies hiding behind nearby bushes, according to pleadings.
Yelling obscenities, he ran back into the home and retrieved a shotgun. Garcia again managed to…
