A man who suffers from mental illness was charged Monday with second-degree assault after luring police officers to his house with a phony 911 call in an attempt to commit suicide-by-cop, according to King County prosecutors.
Joshua Guarino, who was shot by a Seattle police officer in Magnolia on Saturday, is accused of running at Officer Zolt Dornay with a knife, charging papers say.
Dornay's partner, who was identified by Seattle police on Tuesday as Officer Stephen Ives, fired at Guarino, striking him in the torso, according to police and charging documents.
The "defendant ran at officers holding a knife clearly intending to be shot by the officers. He told the officers he would have done whatever he had to for them to shoot him," King County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Jeffrey Dernbach wrote in charging papers.
Guarino is under guard at Harborview Medical Center as he recovers from his injuries, charging papers say. According to jail records, Guarino is being held in lieu of $200,000 bail.
Per department policy, both officers were placed on paid administrative leave while the shooting is investigated.
Dornay, 44, is a 19-year department veteran while Ives, 52, has been with the Seattle force for 26 years. Both are patrol officers assigned to the department's West Precinct.
At 11:45 a.m. Saturday, Guarino called 911 to report that a man was waving a kitchen knife in the air outside his house in the 2500 block of 36th Avenue West, charging papers say. He described the suspect as a white male in his 20s who was "possibly high or intoxicated," adding he did not know the man, the papers say.
Guarino is white and 23.
Guarino made a second 911 call about 10 minutes later, and asked officers to hurry because the knife-wielding man was knocking on his door, according to the charging papers.
Officers arrived a few minutes later and "immediately saw Guarino in the street ... holding a knife," with his father standing next to him, the papers say. The officers yelled at Guarino to drop the knife and told his father to get away from him, according to the papers.
Guarino ignored repeated commands to drop the knife and "started to rapidly advance in a jog" toward Dornay with the knife raised and pointed at the officers, the papers say. Ives then shot Guarino.
"Guarino's parents reported that Guarino suffers from mental illness and planned this event as a means of committing suicide," the papers say. "The report to 911 regarding a man with a knife was fabricated, and the only one with a knife at the scene was Guarino himself."
He has previously been convicted of two misdemeanors -- criminal attempt and disorderly conduct -- and one gross misdemeanor on a second-degree car-prowling charge, according to prosecutors.
Guarino is scheduled to be arraigned June 17.
Copyright 2013 - The Seattle Times
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
