Armed man threatens roommate

Published 1:30 am Friday, April 24, 2026

A Whidbey Island man fired a rifle from the doorway of a Zylstra Road home and threatened to kill his roommate on April 18 over a disagreement involving dogs, according to court documents.

Prosecutors charged 39-year-old Anthony D. Soto in Island County Superior Court on April 21 with felony harassment and unlawful possession of a firearm in the second degree.

Soto made his preliminary appearance in court on April 20. The deputy prosecutor and the sheriff’s deputy who investigated the case recommended that the judge set Soto’s bail at $50,000, noting that he has a violent criminal history in California that includes arson with great bodily injury for lighting a man on fire.

Judge Christon Skinner set Soto’s bail at $1,500 cash or a $10,000 bond. Soto posted the $1,500 bail the same day and was released.

According to a report by a deputy with the Island County Sheriff’s Office, Soto and three other men were living in the home together. One of the men said Soto became angry over an argument related to his dog and the victim’s dog two days prior to the incident. Soto left and stayed at a hotel but returned on April 17 with an AR-15-style rifle. The man texted his roommate not to come home because Soto was armed, the report states.

One of the men called the police, but they “couldn’t do anything,” the man told the deputy.

The next morning, the victim woke up and encountered Soto, who was holding the rifle, the report states. Soto asked him if he wanted to see and fired six or seven shots out of the doorway of the home, according to the report.

The man ran to his bedroom and barricaded the door with his dog inside. Soto allegedly threatened to shoot and kill the man, who was scared that Soto was going to fire through the door, the deputy wrote.

The man pushed his dog out the bedroom window and then climbed through the window. He ran to a neighbor’s house and called 911. He later told deputies that he was terrified for his life.

When deputies arrived, they saw Soto running from the back door of the house carrying a rifle. A deputy ordered him to drop the gun, which he did and was taken into custody.

The deputies checked nearby homes to make sure the bullets didn’t cause any injuries or damage; they didn’t find any problems.

Soto is not legally allowed to possess a gun because of past felony convictions. In California, he was convicted of arson with great bodily injury in 2007 and assault with a deadly weapon in 2017; he served a total of five years in prison for the felonies. He has at least seven prior convictions that led to jail or prison time and violated parole in California.