BEAVER — A State Patrol investigation has concluded law enforcement officers were protecting themselves and Beaver mobile home park residents when a Clallam County sheriff’s sergeant shot to death an armed 59-year-old man last fall.
Edward Lowell Hills, a former Sequim resident, was killed in Hills’ 34-foot motor home at the Lake Pleasant Mobile Home &RV Park after Sgt. Edwin Anderson and Forks Police Officer Mike Gentry confronted him.
They were responding to a neighbor’s complaint that Hills was acting in a threatening manner and generally acting “crazy,” the April 3 report said.
Anderson shot Hills at close range at about 5 p.m. Nov. 4 while standing at the door of the motor home after Hills grabbed a fully loaded, five-round .38-caliber Special revolver, according to the State Patrol Investigative Service Bureau’s investigative report obtained last week by the Peninsula Daily News.
Hills had told Anderson, “I’ll take a gun and I’ll shoot it in your head,” according to the report authored by State Patrol Detective Krista Hedstrom.
The report was based on interviews with Gentry and Anderson.
“It was like facing toward the wall, I guess, and as he picked it up, and at that point I knew he was going to kill us,” Anderson said in his interview.
“He told us what he was going to do. I really didn’t at the time know, but when I seen that pistol, I knew at that point he meant it.
“I immediately hollered ‘Gun!,’ I drew and I fired two rounds as quickly as I could.”
A bullet from Anderson’s .45-caliber Glock was recovered from Hills’ chest, according to the report.
“He lifted that gun up to try and shoot me with it,” Anderson said recently in an interview.
Gentry fired eight rounds into the motor home from outside the structure, two of which hit Hills in the right thigh and left knee, Hedstrom said Friday.
Prosecuting attorney
County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Nichols said that by Friday, he expects to complete a legal analysis that will address any possible crimes that Anderson might face resulting from the officer-involved shooting.
“If I found that charges appeared to be in order, that’s a decision that I would refer to an outside agency,” he said.
“I will address any criminal liability that could be faced by a law enforcement officer who uses deadly force in the line of duty.”
Hedstrom suggested in her report that Anderson and Gentry had good reason to fire their weapons.
“Although there is no evidence to support that Hills fired his weapon, Hills’ actions prompted the officers to fire their duty weapons in order to protect themselves and other residents of the park,” she concluded.
According to a toxicology report Hills, the father of two adult sons, had methamphetamine in his system when Anderson and Gentry arrived at Hills’ motor home that afternoon.
Hills had a criminal history that “was not lengthy, and local law enforcement officers were not familiar with him,” according to Hedstrom’s report.
Struggling with grief
Close friends said Hills, a resident of the mobile home park for about two years, was struggling with the Oct. 2, 2016, death of his 18-year-old grandson, Paco M. Frees of Kent.
Frees was the passenger in a car driven by a man who crashed the vehicle into a tree east of Enumclaw on state Highway 410. Bryson Stubbles, 18, later pleaded guilty to alcohol-related vehicular homicide.
The neighbor who called authorities Nov. 4 said Hills was yelling, screaming, shaking his fist and putting his hand into the shape of a pistol as if he were pointing a handgun at the neighbor.
Another neighbor said Hills had been yelling and screaming from his motor home the night before, adding, “Hills has done this before and usually it would just stop.”
Anderson and Gentry arrived at the RV park at 4:56 that afternoon, according to an RV park surveillance video that skipped ahead from 4:56:43 p.m. to 4:58:01 and mostly showed Gentry taking cover outside the motor home.
“There did not appear to be any notable footage of the actual incident,” according to the report.
Hills answered his door to Anderson and Gentry while scratching and picking at himself and saying, “They’re trying to come out of me,” according to Hedstrom’s report.
Asked to stop out of his motor home, Hills refused, saying, “I am God” and “I will shoot you.”
He told Anderson, “I’ll take a gun and I’ll shoot you in your head,” forming his hand into the shape of a gun and pointing it at Anderson as if he were shooting, according to the report.
As Anderson tried to calm down Hills and convince him to step out of the motor home, Hills attempted to shut the door, the report said.
Anderson grabbed the door to stop him, and Gentry deployed his Taser, failing to hit Hills, the report said.
Hills reached around the back of a chair or couch to grab the five-round revolver, and Anderson shot him, according to the report.
After Hills ran toward the back of his motor home, Gentry said he saw him sitting on the left side of his motor home.
“He could see Hills’ head moving around,” the report said.
“Sgt. Anderson knew that it was not safe to go in or send medics in until the scene was secure so a tactical team needed to be assembled and residents needed to be evacuated until the area was safe,” the report said.
Six deputies and a Forks police officer evacuated mobile home park residents, several of whom refused to leave, according to the report.
“The officers were actively trying to talk him out of the trailer, saying comments like, ‘We want to get help for you,’ ” Hedstrom said. “They didn’t want him to be in there injured, obviously. They obviously can’t enter after a situation like that.”
Shortly after sheriff’s detectives arrived at 6:36 p.m., the tactical team entered the motor home, finding Hills seated with his back resting against the wall and his head slumped forward.
Medics entered the motor home and pronounced Hills deceased, nearly two hours after he was shot.
Hills’ gun holster was found in the seating-dining area, while his bloody revolver was on a bloody bed.
There was no alcohol in his system, and authorities did not find methamphetamine in his motor home.
Hills, who at one time owned a construction company, lived in Sequim until about two years ago, when he moved to Forks to fish more, according to the report.
Hills and his wife were married for less than two years.
Their two sons lived with Hills for most of their childhood and youth.
He became involved in drugs after his mother died and struggled with the loss of his father, according to the report.
“Just one week prior to his death, Hills had talked about moving from Forks so he could be closer to his siblings, sons and grandchildren,” according to Hedstrom’s report.
Family members said he had never been diagnosed or suffered from mental illness, and his criminal history “was not lengthy,” according to the report.
Anderson and Gentry were placed on administrative leave during the investigation.
Anderson said recently that the Hills shooting was the first shooting he was involved in during 19 years of law enforcement.
“I’ve gone over it a million times,” he said of the State Patrol investigation.
“I just continue to do my job to the best of my ability and hope to never be put in that position ever again.
“You just do the best you can to move on and to the best of your ability, and really that’s all you can do.
“It’s just hard for me to talk about. It’s just a tough thing to go through.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
