Crime Law

Wife of slain sex offender: 'Nobody has any compassion'

PORT ANGELES, Washington — The wife of a convicted sex offender who was targeted and killed over the weekend said Tuesday she’s sickened by people who have called the man accused in the crime a hero.

Gary Blanton was one of two sex offenders shot and killed by Patrick Drum in Clallam County, investigators said.

“My husband wasn’t a predator,” Leslie Blanton said. “My husband was the victim of a horrible murder and nobody has any compassion about that. They don’t care.”

In a statement, the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office said evidence suggested that Drum “had a particular animus towards sex offenders.” Police said Drum wanted to kill more of them.

“My husband’s a good man,” Leslie Blanton said. “He’s been there for us, and now we don’t have him and he’ll never come home.”

She said her and her husband, who was a Level 2 sex offender, have two children who will now never know their father.

“He’s not God,” Leslie Blanton said of Drum. “He doesn’t get to decide when people get to live and die. What kind of hero makes babies victims? ‘Cause that’s what my kids are now.”

Drum remains locked up in the Clallam County Jail.