SPANAWAY, Wash. — A dispute over kicking up dust on a Spanaway road devolved into ethnic insults and a gun being fired.
The frustrations went a long way back. A middle-aged couple shared a gravel road with an extended family who immigrated from Ukraine and the woman believed her neighbors drove too quickly on the road.
“When the victims drive to and from their home it creates dust which irritates the defendant,” according to court documents.
The 69-year-old woman has accused her neighbors of speeding down the road, which kicks up even more dust, and sometimes resorted to ethnic remarks in her anger, records show.
On Saturday, she grabbed a shovel and dug a ditch on the road in front of her house, apparently in an effort to force her neighbors to drive slower.
One of the neighbors filled in the ditch.
The woman again went out to dig the ditch. As she worked, one of the neighbors drove by and stopped to talk about the problem. Several of the neighbor’s family members came up to join the discussion and “a shouting match eventually ensued,” records show.
One of the neighbors began recording the exchange, which quickly heated up.
The woman yelled for her neighbors to get off her property. They reminded her that the road is not her property.
“The defendant then screams ‘Get the hell out of my comfort zone,’” records show.
An 8-minute video clip taken by the neighbors shows the woman rack a round and fire a single shot into the air. She then points the gun at the group of neighbors, and at a group of their children that had gathered nearby.
That’s when the woman’s husband came outside and asked her to give him the gun. She complied, but grabbed a rake and knocked a shovel out of one of her neighbors’ hands, records show.
Deputies said one of the neighbors had the shovel planted in the ground during the exchange.
Throughout the confrontation, prosecutors contend the woman called her neighbors “foreigners” and made comments like “Go back where you came from. You don’t belong her,” according to charging papers.
She pleaded not guilty to second-degree assault Monday and was released on her own recognizance.
Pierce County Superior Court Commissioner Meagan Foley ordered the woman not to interact with her neighbors or dig another ditch on the road.
The woman was also ordered to turn over her guns.
Prosecutors said they may file additional charges against the woman.