MONTESANO, Wash. – The suspect in Friday's attack on a sheriff's deputy and a judge at the Grays Harbor County Courthouse Friday was arrested at a home in Olympia on Saturday.
The suspect has been identified as 34-year-old Steven Daniel Kravetz. He was identified by witnesses at the courthouse at the time of the attack.
Police located Kravetz based on a tip from his mother.
They surrounded a home in Olympia and he was taken into custody without incident.
Judge David Edwards and Grays Harbor County sheriff's Deputy Polly Davin were released from a hospital hours after being injured in the coastal town of Montesano.
The Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office says after the attack, Kravetz ran out of the courthouse and over to a nearby attorney’s office. Once there he called his mother to come and pick him up.
Deputies have had contact with Kravetz in the past, one in 2005 for a domestic violence offense. He has been in the courthouse before but he was not listed on any court dockets on Friday. Deputies have no idea why he was there or why he attacked.
On Saturday morning Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Deputies, as well as officers from other areas, began an intense search in the blocks surrounding the courthouse. They believe Kravetz may have dropped or hidden evidence, possibly including the 45-caliber gun he stole from the deputy.
Deputies were also looking at former addresses of Kravetz and his mother. They focused on the Thurston County area, which was the mother’s last known address.
On Saturday afternoon, police surrounded a home in Olympia and took the suspect into custody.
The chain of events began at 12:10 p.m., when sheriff's deputy Polly Davin confronted a suspicious person in the courthouse building. The man attacked Davin with a sharp object.
"I was on the third floor and I saw on the first floor the deputy was being attacked," says Superior Court Judge Dave Edwards.
Edwards came to Davin's aid, pushing the attacker against a wall.
"When I went to assist the deputy, he had a weapon in his hand, a knife or something, and he was stabbing her," says Edwards. "And that's when I got stabbed."
When Davin attempted to draw her firearm, the attacker knocked her to the ground and took the weapon away from her, then shot her in the shoulder.
"He got the gun away from the deputy and went 'pop pop!'" said Edwards. "And [he] turned and looked at me then he went out the courthouse with the gun in his hand."
The courthouse was cordoned off in the immediate aftermath of the attack. All Grays Harbor County schools and county offices were placed in lockdown and residents were told to stay indoors.
A nearby home was surrounded minutes later where it was believed the attacker was holed up. SWAT moved in, firing tear gas into the home, but nobody was inside.
