KIRKLAND—
Another turn in the story of a medical marijuana activist who nearly killed an intruder in his home this month. Steve Sarich said he tried to buy a shotgun and a pistol a few days after the March 15 shootout to replace ones that were seized by investigators, but he failed the background check. Sarich claims he has no criminal record.The King County Sheriff's Office sent him an e-mail Tuesday explaining the denial. It says that Sarich showed investigators his paperwork as a medical marijuana patient, and those papers create a presumption that Sarich is an "unlawful user" of a controlled substance.
The sheriff's office says that under federal law, using a controlled substance disqualifies someone from passing a background check for gun purchases.
Sarich says he finds it absurd that medical marijuana patients should have to give up their Second Amendment rights.
****Previous Story**** A well-known Washington state medical marijuana activist traded gunfire with robbers who invaded his home early Monday, suffering minor shotgun pellet wounds and sending one intruder to the intensive care unit of a hospital.
Activist Steve Sarich, 59, runs CannaCare, an organization that provides patients with marijuana plants and advice about Washington's law.
"I don't want to shoot people, but God, this is our eighth home invasion since last May," he told The Associated Press.
Sarich said he was awakened at his Kirkland home by the barking of his dogs, then grabbed a .22-caliber handgun and headed down a hallway outside his bedroom. A man with a shotgun confronted him in the living room and fired, he said. The main blast struck a wall a few inches from his head, Sarich said. One pellet struck his face while another hit his leg.
Sarich shot at the robber but missed. When his gun jammed, he darted back to his bedroom and grabbed another handgun. He spotted another robber standing outside the glass door to his bedroom and fired three times, hitting the robber multiple times.
Sarich's live-in girlfriend called 911, as did the wounded robber, a 19-year-old from Renton. King County sheriff's deputies found him in the backyard and took him to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he underwent surgery for life-threatening wounds.
Sheriff's deputies arrested a second suspect, also 19, as he tried to flag down a ride nearby a few hours later. That suspect gave investigators the names of two others involved in the robbery attempt who had fled in a vehicle. They remained at large, sheriff's Sgt. John Urquhart said.
The home invasion came just two days after a medical marijuana patient from Orting, Michael Howard, died of injuries sustained March 9 when robbers targeted his growing operation, according to Ben Livingston, of the Cannabis Defense Coalition.
Howard was struck in the head during the robbery, possibly with a crowbar, Thurston County sheriff's Detective Ed Troyer said Monday. Deputies found 150 marijuana plants in a shed on the property and are investigating the case as a homicide.
Sarich said he only grows starter plants and clones in his home that are provided to patients. He himself is a patient who suffers from painful back conditions including degenerative disc disorder, he said.
Sarich said he fired shots to scare robbers during a January break-in at his home when intruders escaped with seeds, a vaporizer and pipes.
Sarich said he typically doesn't call police when his house is broken into because he doesn't want to deal with the hassle of having his home searched by law enforcement checking his compliance with the state's medical marijuana law.
Investigators on Monday were waiting to obtain a search warrant for Sarich's home, but Urquhart said he didn't immediately know if the warrant pertained to the shooting investigation or the marijuana present.
Douglas Hiatt, a medical marijuana attorney in Seattle who has worked with Sarich and who knew Howard, said the cases show the dangers presented by marijuana prohibition. Hiatt is gathering signatures for a ballot initiative that would remove all criminal penalties for adult use, possession and distribution of marijuana.
"This is directly related to prohibition," Hiatt said. "It's what happens when you make a house plant worth more than gold." ---- Earlier Reporting --
Q13 FOX News has an interview with the man who was shot during a home invasion robbery Monday morning. We first spoke to Steve Sarich on Sunday in response to a recent home invasion robbery in Tacoma last week. What we didn't know is that he too would become a victim himself the next morning.
Sarich is president of CanaCare, an organization that helps medical marijuana patients. Q13 FOX News was reporting on a robbery of a fellow medical marijuana patient, Michael Howard. He was killed last Tuesday after he caught robbers breaking into his shed and stealing his marijuana plants. He was hit in the face with a crowbar and died several days later.
Sarich had no idea he would be a victim of another home invasion robbery Monday morning. Deputies say two people including Sarich was shot in the arm while at his home in Kirkland.
Deputies say it was a shoot-out between the suspect and the homeowner. The homeowner told police that he and his girlfriend were asleep when their dogs started barking. He got up and was confronted by two men inside his house.
He fired his handgun, and one of the suspects fired as well. Both the victim and the suspect were sent to the hospital with injuries. Roads were blocked for most of the morning as deputies continued to investigate.
Sarich told Q13 FOX News on Sunday that he knew that was an obvious target for home invasion robberies. He says, "It's gotten to the point that the bad guys know that you're not going to call the police because the results you're going to get from the police is worst then what you're going to get from them."
Sarich responded to the investigation of Howard and the home invasion robbery that ultimately killed him. Sarich claims deputies have not done enough for the investigation into Howard's death. He tells us, "We are obvious targets because criminals know that if we call the police, we're going to get the same amount of response that Mike Howard got from the Pierce County Sheriffs."
Q13 FOX News is waiting for a response from the Sheriff's office on Sarich's claim.
Sarich is in the hospital with minor injuries. His girlfriend was not injured. The suspect has life threatening injuries.
Deputies continue to search for the suspect involved in Howard's death.
