PORT ANGELES — Kay Ann Beebe will undergo a mental health competency evaluation to determine if she can be arraigned on a charge of trying to kill her husband, David, and shooting into the home of her neighbors in the early morning hours of Oct. 18.
Beebe, 66, was scheduled to enter a plea Friday in Clallam County Superior Court. Instead, according to Judge Lauren Erickson’s ruling, the Forks resident will remain in the Clallam County jail on $500,000 bail as she awaits a visit from a Western State Hospital evaluator.
A review hearing is scheduled for Nov. 19.
Charged with attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault and reckless endangerment, Beebe allegedly shot two of 13 bullets in the direction of the next-door residence of Dennis and Janis Flagg.
One bullet ended up embedded in the siding. The other projectile went through a window of the Flaggs’ Forks-area Palmer Road home north of the Palmer Road-Calawah Way corner, where the Beebes live.
The bullet tore through a curtain, ricocheted off a living-room hutch and landed on the living room floor, 20 feet from the couple’s bedroom — near a recliner, where her husband would have been snoozing if he’d had trouble sleeping, Janis Flagg, 62, recalled Monday.
Had Dennis Flagg, 64, been lying there, he could have been shot, Flagg said.
“I’m glad it wasn’t one of those nights,” she said.
“I’ve had plenty of adrenaline going through me ever since.”
David Beebe, 69, has returned to his Calawah Way home about 50 yards from the Flaggs’ residence after being treated at University of Washington Medical Center for a through-and-through bullet wound to his lower leg.
Beebe was released Oct. 22, a hospital spokesperson said Monday.
The evaluator will employ a series of tests to determine if Kay Ann Beebe understands the charges against her and can assist in her defense, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Sarah Woolman said Monday.
Beebe’s attorney, Doug Kresl of Port Angeles, could not be reached Monday for comment.
David Beebe told deputies he was shot at about 3 a.m. Oct. 18 while he was walking out of his house to get to his Peterbilt log truck, parked outside his three-bedroom residence.
He said he heard gunshots, saw a gunflash and got on the ground. His thermos and lunchbox were found near the cab.
Kay Ann Beebe’s Glock 9 mm semiautomatic pistol was found near the rear tire of the vehicle, parked near their house.
“The first person he saw was his wife, Kay, by the pickup,” he told Sheriff’s Deputy David Fletcher, according to the probable cause statement.
“She was standing in the same place the person was shooting from,” Fletcher said David Beebe told him. “He was sure that Kay would not shoot him.”
Beebe said his only contact with Kay that morning before the shooting was a text message.
Kay Ann Beebe, who has a concealed-carry permit, told investigators she fired the gun once after she thought someone was breaking into the log truck before she realized it was her husband.
She fired 12 more bullets, shooting several holes in the driver’s side of the cab and then two toward the Flaggs’ house.
Kay Ann Beebe said in a recorded statement that she did not have a plan if she killed her husband, according to the probable cause statement.
“When I fired the first shot and then (unintelligible) and then it was like I couldn’t let go of the gun. I just pulled the trigger,” Beebe said.
“I remember seeing him, and then it was like, I just, I just kind of went blank, and I just, and I just closed my eyes and kept pulling the trigger,” she said.
“I just snapped.”
The reckless endangerment charge is related to Beebe allegedly shooting into the Flaggs’ home.
The couple, recently retired to their Forks-area property, did not think twice after hearing a bang or a thud during the staccato of shots, waking up at about 7 a.m. to a bullet hole through their window and the sight of law enforcement vehicles parked at the Beebes’ home.
As details emerged about the shooting, “we were shocked,” Janis Flagg said.
What came to mind about Kay Ann Beebe was her generosity, she said, recalling that Beebe would often mow the Flaggs’ lawn, unbidden, while they were away. She would refuse payment.
What came to Flagg’s mind after the incident was akin to the memory of surviving a bad car accident.
“I immediately wanted to call friends to tell them what happened,” she said.
“We are just counting the ways were are lucky.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
