PORT ANGELES — A Port Angeles woman is facing possible charges today for an alleged shooting at a westside residence last week.
Betty Jean Blevins, 48, was arrested Saturday for investigation of first-degree assault and first-degree burglary with domestic violence after a reported shooting at a home on the 2100 block of West 16th Street in Port Angeles.
She is being held in the Clallam County jail in lieu of $250,000 bail.
The Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office will consider filing formal charges at Blevins’ next court appearance at 1 p.m. today.
Port Angeles police said Blevins shot a man with whom she had a previous romantic relationship in his left leg at about 11:47 p.m. Friday.
The man told police that Blevins broke into the home and followed him into the kitchen and pointed a black, semi-automatic pistol at him and fired twice, striking him once in the leg.
The man chased Blevins and tried to wrestle the gun from her grip, according to the affidavit for probable cause. Blevins released her grip when the man head butted her as hard as he could, Officer Tyler Mueller wrote in the affidavit.
Mueller and Elwha police officer Dan Latourette found the alleged victim with blood on his pants. He was unable to put any weight on his left leg, Mueller said.
“Due the inherent danger associated with DV (domestic violence) and firearm-related incidents, the unknown whereabouts of Blevins and the unknown extent of (the man’s) injury, I decided it was not safe to keep (him) in the same location, and it was imperative to get him to advanced medical care,” Mueller wrote.
The officers drove the man in an Elwha police vehicle to an area near the corner of West 10th and N streets, where Port Angeles Fire Department medics assumed patient care.
“En route, I cut off (the man’s) pants and exposed the bullet wound,” Mueller wrote.
“I observed the apparent entry and exit wound to the approximate mid-thigh on (the man’s) left leg.”
Blevins was arrested a short time later at the Serenity House of Clallam County housing complex in west Port Angeles.
Mueller obtained surveillance footage showing Blevins leaving and returning to Serenity House before and after the shooting, court papers said.
Jason Viada, Port Angeles deputy chief of police, said the alleged victim was treated and discharged from Olympic Medical Center and had been cooperating with investigators.
“We are working our way through the follow-up investigation in partnership with the prosecutor,” Viada said in a Tuesday interview.
“We initially were investigating that (shooting) as a first-degree assault, although charges of attempted murder are now being considered. We’ll see how that ends up being charged.”
Viada said the officers displayed exceptional police work in their initial response to the shooting.
“They got there and they did not know where the shooter was,” Viada said of Mueller and Latourette.
“They didn’t know where the gun was, but they knew they had a shooting victim that they had to get to medical care quickly.
“They loaded him in the back of a cop car and got him out of there and got him to the medics, and then they continued the investigation,” Viada added.
“That was really good thinking on their part. … I just think it’s something that deserves mentioning.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
