An Ariel man is facing allegations of attempted murder after authorities say he violated a domestic violence no-contact order and tampered with his former partner’s vehicle.
Authorities say Zachery Hansen, 30, loosened the lug nuts on the victim’s SUV “for the wheel(s) to come off while in motion.”
The Vancouver police detective who authored the probable cause affidavit in the case said the loss of a wheel, especially at highway speeds, could have led to “severe injury and high potential for a fatal accident.”
Hansen was in Clark County Superior Court on Friday to add two counts of attempted first-degree murder, one count of stalking and two counts of violating a no-contact order to an existing case.
Judge Emily Sheldrick set Hansen’s bail at $1 million. He will be in court again Thursday.
The affidavit said Hansen is on pre-trial release and already charged with felony stalking and multiple domestic violence no-contact order violations. He has an active no-contact order prohibiting him from harassing, stalking or coming within a 1,000 feet of his former partner and their 4-year-old daughter.
At about 4 p.m. Wednesday, the woman, who resides in Vancouver, reported that she found her vehicle had been tampered with. Her front license plate was missing, and there were nails propped under the front tires, ready to puncture them if she drove away, the affidavit says.
Detective Travis Brown remotely reviewed security footage and found the tampering occurred around 1:15 a.m. The person in the video appeared to be Hansen, the detective said, whom he has arrested before, court records state.
Hansen is reportedly seen on video tampering with a wheel and loosening lug nuts, according to the detective.
Brown immediately contacted the woman to alert her of the vehicle’s condition. She was driving with her daughter at the time and reported hearing a loud noise coming from her vehicle as she approached a highway. She changed course and later confirmed that the lug nuts had been loosened, and at least one wheel was about to come off, the affidavit says.
“(The woman) told me she is in fear of being killed and also in fear for their daughter who was subjected to the same attempt,” Brown wrote in the affidavit.
Brown said he is aware of similar tampering incidents that occurred earlier this year, including the oil being drained from the woman’s car and air removed from her tires. In January, nails were propped under the tires to puncture them, court records state.
The detective said the investigation also found Hansen stole the woman’s security camera from her residence and researched how to use and buy a GPS tracker. She said she found a tracker on her vehicle, according to the affidavit.
“The Danger Assessment scored a 15 for ‘severe’ on a scale of 1-18. The Danger Assessment is a tool that assesses lethality; it identifies the lethal risk the suspect poses to the victim,” Brown wrote in the affidavit, adding that the threat score had now been elevated to “extreme.”
