Suspect in Bainbridge Island murder was victim's former employee

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND — A man in his 60s was killed in what is the first murder on Bainbridge Island in 21 years, according to the Bainbridge Island police chief.

Police say they were called to the 7000 block of High School Road Wednesday afternoon about a suspicious death on a well-drilling worksite in a field next to a home.

Officers found a white man in his 60s dead with injuries to his torso that appeared to be gunshot wounds.

The homeowner told officers he had hired the victim to drill and install a well.

Upon speaking with the victim’s wife, investigators were told that a possible person of interest in the murder was a man who had worked for the victim at the victim’s drilling business. The man claimed to have been hurt on the job several months earlier, and the victim didn’t believe the employee had been hurt, resulting in bad feelings between the two, according to Kitsap County Superior Court probable cause documents.

After getting a search warrant for the worksite, detectives found a number of fingerprint and palm impressions on a welding truck that the victim had brought to the worksite. One of those prints matched one of those on file with police for the person of interest, the documents said.

Police detained and questioned the man. Investigators said that over the course of the interview, the man admitted to talking to the victim at the worksite on the day of the murder, but said the victim was alive when he left but that he heard gunfire when he was driving home.

Court documents said that eventually, the man said the reason he killed the victim was because he “knew” he had poisoned his beloved dog.  The man told police the gun used in the murder was at his home, and later directed police to it, as well as to spent shell casings he picked up after the shooting.

The 31-year-old Bainbridge Island man was arrested on first-degree murder charges Thursday. He was booked into the Kitsap County Jail.

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