Sheriff’s office following up on leads in local cases

As Thanksgiving approaches, local police officers have plenty on their plates.

Only this is not talking about turkey and all the fixins.

Sgt. Jeff Willard, who administers the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office La Conner detachment, outlined for Town Council members the busy schedule deputies are shouldering as Washington state enters a new round of COVID-19 restrictions.

“It hasn’t been too bad yet,” Willard told the Weekly News on Monday. “Hopefully, the new lockdown will not negatively affect the public.”

The detachment’s workload had been full enough before additional pandemic guidelines went into place this week. Willard said the sheriff’s office continues to probe the recent armed robbery of the Amaryllis boutique on First Street and a break-in at La Conner Realty & Investment on Morris Street reported Nov. 10.

“We’re following up in the Amaryllis case,” Willard said during the Council’s Nov. 10 Zoom meeting. “We have to chase down a couple leads on that.”

As for the La Conner Realty break-in, which the sheriff’s office is also actively investigating, Willard said “there is no suspect information to follow up on at this time.”

In the meantime, deputies have stepped up traffic patrols in and around La Conner, Willard said.

A chronic speeding motorist on Maple Avenue, the subject of numerous citizen complaints, is now less likely to be a nuisance, said Willard.

“A deputy stopped the car,” he told the Council, “and had a productive counseling session on the side of the road with him.”

Deputies also responded to repeated complaints about a motorist cruising town with a blaring stereo.

“They let him know about the noise ordinance,” Willard said, “and let him know that it (the volume of his car stereo) was disturbing the neighbors.”

Willard added that it was disturbing to learn of the apparent shooting death of a blue heron found lifeless on First Street.

“It looked like a gunshot wound,” confirmed Town Planning Commissioner Marna Hanneman, who attended the tele-conferenced Council session, and had seen the dead heron prior to its disposal.

Willard hoped there was a less than nefarious reason for the bird’s death, suggesting it might have been the result of errant fire from hunters in the area.

When initial statewide COVID-19 restrictions were put in place last spring, residents witnessed an uptick in thefts, break-ins and graffiti tagging. Town leaders, including Mayor Ramon Hayes, have since proposed formation of a Citizens Patrol in 2021 to be trained and administered by the sheriff’s office for those times deputies are on call elsewhere.