CLALLAM BAY — Karen McMahon, who has owned a convenience store in the shadows of a state prison for nine years, said Wednesday’s escape attempt doesn’t bother her.
Inmate Kevin Newland, 25, was shot when he drove a forklift through the doors of the work area and into the perimeter fences.
“We’re just glad that he was killed” before he could hurt anyone, McMahon said.
At the same time that Newland was killed, Dominick Maldonado, 25, took a correctional officer hostage briefly and is now under tight security at the prison.
McMahon’s store, the Weel Road Deli, sits across state Highway 112 from the entrance to the Clallam Bay Corrections Center and is frequented daily by correctional officers going to and from work.
From inside the store Wednesday, the roadblock set up by authorities at the intersection of state Highway 112 and Eagle Crest Way — the road to the prison — could be seen.
The attempted escape, naturally, was on the lips of McMahon’s customers Wednesday.
Many shoppers casually peppered the off-duty correctional officers — some they knew as friends or neighbors — with questions as they walked in to buy food for their shift.
The officers, none of whom wanted to be identified for their own protection, said they knew nothing or could confirm only that an inmate was killed while trying to escape.
Some didn’t know if they would be allowed into the prison yet.
The store, like Clallam Bay itself, depends on the 26-year-old prison, noted McMahon, 59.
“We wouldn’t be here” without it, she said.
Still, for some, the failed escape was a stark reminder that they live near a facility that holds some of the state’s most dangerous people.
“It’s unsettling to have something like this happen so close to home,” said Lori Larrechea.
Larrechea, 50, said she was concerned for her children’s safety when she heard there may have been an escape and went home to lock her doors.
“Sometimes, you forget the prison is there,” she said.
The Clallam Bay prison opened in 1985 and is built to house as many as 858 medium- and maximum-security prisoners, as well as those classified as “close security.”
McMahon said she felt the attempted escape ended the “best way possible,” without any serious harm coming to the prison employees or public.
“They were doing their job,” she said.
“I feel sorry for the guard who shot him,” she added.
“He’ll have to live with that for the rest of his life.”
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.