Machete attack on Lummi Reservation leads to 8 felony charges

BELLINGHAM — A Whatcom County man has been charged with threatening to kill five men as he allegedly attacked them with a machete on the Lummi Reservation.

A man, 43, confronted Charles Dean Crawford around 9 p.m. Saturday, because he’d been speeding through the Sandy Point Heights neighborhood in a Chevy Colorado pickup, according to charging papers. Crawford, 41, lives in the neighborhood north of Lummi Bay with his parents.

At first Crawford seemed to apologize, the charges say. But things grew heated, and he got angry at the man and four other men who saw and heard the conversation. Crawford left the area. The men stayed outside talking on Decatur Drive.

“Suddenly,” the charges say, “Crawford came out of the woods from an empty lot holding a machete. He started to chase after the 5 males swinging the machete as people ran away.”

The wife of one man witnessed the incident. She told sheriff’s deputies if her husband hadn’t jumped out of the way, the machete would have struck him.

Once Crawford stopped chasing the men, he pointed at each of them, saying: “You are dead,” according to the charges.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested Crawford on suspicion of first- and second-degree assault with a deadly weapon, and five counts of felony harassment while armed with a deadly weapon. Two miles into the ride to jail, Crawford kicked out a rear window of the patrol car, according to the charges. Deputies tied him down in four-point restraints for the rest of the trip.

The patrol car was out of commission. An eighth felony count — first-degree malicious mischief — was filed in charges Wednesday.