Bainbridge blotter | Barking dogs cause trouble

Published 9:58 am Sunday, September 25, 2016

Selected reports from the Bainbridge Island Police Department blotter.

SUNDAY, SEPT. 11

6:19 p.m. Police responded to a physical altercation between two men, neighbors on south Bainbridge, after one claimed to have been bitten by the other man’s dogs.

The younger man, 21, said that the dispute began when he was in his yard with his dogs, which often bark and have been the source of previous confrontations between the dog owner and his neighbor, 44. The dogs began to bark at the neighbor again, after which the 21-year-old said his neighbor approached him while very agitated, and demanded to speak with the young man’s mother. He would not leave the property when asked to go away.

The younger man threatened to call the police if his neighbor did not leave. The other man told him to go ahead and call the police, while still approaching.

Frightened, the 21-year-old pushed his neighbor hard with both hands. The neighbor punched him in the arm in response, so he pushed back again. The neighbor then pushed him and he fell back onto his stairs. The young man stood, shoved his neighbors one more time and then ran inside to call the police.

The neighbor waited until police arrived on the scene. He said the neighbor’s dogs have chased and even bit him and his children in the past. He claimed his kids won’t even walk down the easement road between the properties anymore because they are scared of the dogs, and that they can’t take the bus because they’d have to wait near the road and are scared.

Earlier that same say, he said, he’d been taking the garbage out and was circled and bitten by the dogs again himself. When he once more told the younger man to contain his pets, the 21-year-old mocked him for being afraid of such tiny dogs. Then the altercation began.

The older man agreed he was on his way to the front door to speak with his young neighbor’s mother about the dogs when the 21-year-old threatened and pushed him.

Police decided the incident was mutual in nature, both men being somewhat at fault, and nobody was charged with a crime.

During a followup with animal control, police learned that the younger man had indeed been warned before to keep his dogs on his property.

SATURDAY, SEPT. 10

5:09 p.m. A 42-year-old Bainbridge man driving a 2003 Volvo rear ended a 2007 Subaru driven by a 28-year-old Seattle man on Lynwood Center Road.

The Subaru slowed to turn into the drive of a private residence, then paused to allow oncoming traffic to pass. The Bainbridge driver, “stopped looking ahead for a moment” and failed to stop.

No injuries occurred and the drivers exchanged information.