Body Cam Footage From Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery Fish Theft Attempt Released

Washington game wardens only recently began wearing body cams, but newly released footage adds more details to a late-night break-in last weekend at a salmon hatchery on the Cowlitz River while providing a you-are-there sense of what goes into policing the state’s fish and wildlife resources.

https://m.facebook.com/video.php/?video_id=1928149331031824

The 82-second video shows WDFW Police Officer Blaine Corey ordering the driver of a getaway truck to stop as it makes another pass past his location and slashing the left rear tire of the vehicle to disable it, as well as multiple suspects subsequently under arrest after other law enforcement agencies were called in to assist.

“I am proud of Officer Corey’s efforts, quick thinking, and his tenacity to provide law enforcement presence in the middle of the night in a remote location,” said WDFW Police Captain Jeff Wickersham. “He knew where to be and what to do. I am also proud of the response and assistance of the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office and Morton PD. The suspects may not have been located and taken into custody without their help.”

The video adds to initial reports from The Chronicle of Centralia, which broke the story earlier this week, and more details released in a written statement by WDFW Police today. It’s their first proactive release of officers’ body cam videos.

According to the account from the agency, after receiving two recent reports of people unlawfully entering the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery overnight to snag returning Chinook and coho out of fish holding pens, as well as the theft of a hatchery net, officers boosted their patrol presence at the facility just south of Salkum along Highway 12 in central Lewis County.

While completing paperwork and watching employee traffic in and out of the hatchery around 2:15 a.m. last Sunday morning, Officer Corey spotted five suspects inside the complex toting fishing rods and heading for the fish holding area.

Corey walked towards them, but when he was about 50 feet away, the suspects spotted him and began running, leading the officer to yell, “Stop! Fish and Wildlife Police,” according to the WDFW writeup. As Corey pursued them on foot while continuing to order them to stop, the five ran to the back of the hatchery grounds and went over a fence.

A suspect who appeared to be making off with a hatchery dip net dropped it when ordered to do so by Corey, according to the narrative.

One of the five also fell down a steep bank while running away, which is where the body cam video begins, at 2:17 a.m.

“You okay?” Corey asks him, the video shows, then shouts to other suspects ahead of him in the dark, “Y’all leave your buddy?”

“Stop, you’re under arrest. Come here,” he adds as the fallen suspect walks back up the bank.

Meanwhile, the others had run toward the public parking area. “Open the car! Open the car!” can be heard on Corey’s body cam video.

“Grab your pole,” Corey directs the fallen suspect to do as he walks up towards him.

“I don’t have one,” the suspect replies.

“You’re without one? How old are you?” Corey asks.

“Fifteen,” the suspect states.

“Fifteen?” Corey replies and audibly sighs. “So they’re gonna leave you?”

“Probably,” the suspect replies.

At that point the video fast forwards about 4 minutes to 2:21 a.m. and resumes with Corey calling in the break-in as headlights approach his position along the road.

“This is Blaine Corey, Fish and Wildlife. I had multiple juveniles burglarize the hatchery,” he says as a red Ford truck pulls alongside and the back left door opens. “They just took off – Stop! I have you, I have you on video!”

Corey reads off the truck’s make and color and license plate to dispatch. WDFW also reported that Corey reportedly got a clear glimpse of the face of the driver, later identified as Timothy A. Gubarik, 21, of Kent near Seattle.

About 30 seconds later, with Corey standing in the middle of the road, the truck comes by again (there are several loops at the hatchery complex) and he orders it twice to “Stop!”

Believing that he was going to be purposefully run down, Corey moved to the side and when the truck stops, apparently to pick up the 15-year-old suspect who’d fallen and was told he was under arrest, the officer drew his duty knife and stabbed the rear left tire to try and disable the truck. It then took off and left the hatchery grounds.

“I slashed his tires and he just took off,” Corey reports over his radio. “Yeah, he’s taking off out of the hatchery now with a flat tire.”

“If Officer Corey had still been standing there, the vehicle would have struck him,” WDFW Police state.

The video then fast forwards to 3:38 a.m. and shows six officers, including Corey, standing with at least three handcuffed suspects. They were found by Lewis County Sheriff’s Office deputies roughly 3 miles away “trying to hide” along a private road, unable to proceed any further due to a flat tire, according to WDFW’s written account. All were arrested without incident. A sixth suspect was found walking along a nearby road and taken into custody by the Morton PD.

“Did you slash his tires?” one of the suspects asks Corey in the body cam video.

“Yeah,” replies Corey. “Why? Did you try to drive off and you were like, ‘(Bleep), I got a flat’?”

“Yeah,” says one suspect. “We were hella confused,” adds another.

“‘Why is my tire flat?'” Corey impersonates

“It kind of threw me to the side a little – (bleep),” said the apparent driver. “It is what it is, man.”

Then the driver offers unexpected props to Corey’s fast thinking knifing his tire. “It was a smart move. Eight thousand IQ, man. I’ll give that to you, boss, I’ll give that to you.”

So too did WDFW Police in the written statement.

“If Officer Corey had not disabled the tire during the initial encounter, it is likely the group would have evaded capture that morning. Officer Corey’s quick decision led to the group being found and arrested,” officers said.

The six suspects included two adults and four juveniles ranging in age from 23 years old to 15.

Gubarik, the driver, and Roman Tymoshuk, 18, of Auburn in the Kent Valley, were each charged in Lewis County Superior Court with second-degree burglary and attempted theft in the third degree, according to The Chronicle.

Gubarik is also facing second-degree assault, obstruction of an officer and attempting to elude charges, the paper reported. His bail was set at $75,000, with Superior Court Judge James Lawler finding “he’s a threat to community safety.”

Hatcheries in Washington and Oregon both have been targeted by snaggers and others bent on stealing or destroying fish, including summer Chinook at Wallace Salmon Hatchery in early September and winter steelhead at a Coquille watershed fish trap in early 2021. Earlier this year, Joshua Heckathorn was sentenced to 30 days after poisoning some 18,000 young Chinook at a lower Umpqua River rearing site.

WDFW’s latest hatchery escapement report states there were 353 adult fall Chinook and about 2,200 coho on hand at Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery as of October 1.

All 152 of WDFW’s officers only began wearing body cameras last month following a trial period and after input from game wardens and stakeholder was taken into consideration.

“This program advances our commitment to our core values and our mission to protect our natural resources and the public we serve,” said WDFW Police Chief Steve Bear in a press release. “Deploying body-worn cameras to our officers will help us build trust and relationships with all communities in Washington.”

Funding for the agency’s program came from the state legislature, which allocated $915,000 in the 2024 supplemental operating budget.