By NATHAN WHALEN

Staff reporter

A mobile home park on South Main Street in Coupeville was evacuated for nearly 11 hours, beginning Tuesday night, after a middle-aged man threatened to blow himself up.

The standoff ended dramatically, but without serious injuries. Police shot the man with a rubber bullet and wrestled him to the ground. A Snohomish County bomb technician disarmed a makeshift gas bomb inside a mobile home.

Coupeville deputy marshals responded at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday to a report that 40-year-old Patrick Reed was throwing knives in the kitchen and threatening to burn his single-wide trailer down at the Tyee Mobile Home park.

Reed also said he planted explosives in the house and yard, said Marshal Lenny Malborough.

“When we got to the house, they could hear him screaming and yelling incoherently,” Marlborough said. He added that Reed, a long-time Coupeville resident, had a history of mental problems.

Marlborough said deputies started evacuating residents from the trailer court and from nearby homes and businesses shortly after the standoff started.

The residents were first taken to the Tyee Restaurant, but an Island Transit bus later transported them to the Coupeville Recreation Hall. Red Cross provided food and cots for about 30 people who were evacuated from their homes.

Susan Brown, who, along with her husband, Glenn, co-own the park, said people were mostly calm throughout the evening.

“A lot of people slept on the cots and several of us chatted,” Susan said.

Much of Coupeville was closed off to traffic. Officers and firefighters blocked off South Main Street from the Highway 20 to Terry Road, as well as the entire length of Terry Road.

While residents were leaving their homes, the Marshal’s Office was calling neighboring jurisdictions for help. In addition to having the entire Marshal’s Office respond to the incident, the Island County Sheriff’s Office, the Washington State Patrol, Whidbey General Hospital and local fire departments provided personnel and equipment.

Sgt. Sean Magorrian, a trained negotiator from the Oak Harbor Police Department, responded and spent hours trying to talk Reed out of his home.

At around 5 a.m., Reed came out and stepped on his porch. He started cussing and tried to head back into his house. At that time, a trooper shot Reed in the lower back with a rubber projectile and officers were able to take him into custody, Marlborough said.

Reed was transported to Whidbey General Hospital and then eventually taken to a facility in Sedro-Woolley where he underwent a 72-hour mental evaluation.

When officers entered the home they found a three-gallon gas tank, which contained about a gallon of gasoline, with wires connected to it.

“The only thing we had was a taped-up, wired-up gas can,” Marlborough said.

A bomb tech from Snohomish County and a bomb sniffing dog searched the area outside the home. However, they didn’t find anything.

Tuesday evening wasn’t the only time law enforcement responded to a suicide attempt involving Reed.

A deputy marshal responded to Reed’s home about 18 months ago. The deputy noticed a gas can with a lamp wire attached to it. Only this time, the deputy took Reed into custody before he reached the item, Marlborough said.

Marlborough said no charges were filed against Reed, at least not yet. Potential charges could include reckless endangerment and malicious placement of an explosive.

Even after Reed was taken into custody, one local business still wasn’t able to open on time.

The Ebey Academy, a day care located on Terry Road, normally opens at 7 a.m. However, they didn’t open until 9 a.m. Wednesday morning. Marlborough said that was when the search of the area was complete.

Suzanne McDonald, a preschool teacher who was opening the day care Wednesday, said parents took their children either to work or back home for several hours.

“Everybody was pretty weirded out,” McDonald said.