BRINNON — Authorities say a Valentine’s Day incident turned into violence when a man allegedly fired a shot at a vehicle.
Mark Apeland, a sergeant with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department, characterized the incident as “a love triangle gone badly.”
At around 11 a.m Sunday, Jefferson County Sheriff’s deputies received a call about a shirtless man wielding an axe at Rocky Brook Falls just north of Brinnon followed by a report of a drive-by shooting in the same area.
Apeland said deputies then connected the incidents and made a separate visit to the waterfall, where they arrested Collin W. White, 23, of Marrowstone Island, for investigation of one count of drive-by shooting and two counts of reckless endangerment.
After an investigation, deputies said White had driven to Brinnon to pick up his 33-year-old girlfriend at the house of her 46-year-old husband.
The woman is separated from her husband and lives with White, authorities said, and the woman and husband have joint custody of their children.
White, who police said was “apparently upset when he found his girlfriend there,” fired a pistol round into a vehicle parked directly in front of the residence. The bullet passed through the car.
The husband was outside the residence, and the couple’s two children, ages 6 and 3, were inside at the time of the shooting, police said.
White and the woman left together in a Chevrolet SUV and traveled to the falls, where he was arrested.
The woman was not charged and was left at the scene, Apeland said.
White is now in the Jefferson County Jail and will make his first court appearance today, Apeland said.
