by COURTNEY OLDWYN

Journal reporter

Assaulted at gun point in the middle of the night in his home on Orcas island last week, Josh Mayson and his family are still reeling over the fact that a sheriff’s deputy didn’t arrive to investigate until 8:30 a.m. the next morning.

“This was a huge error on the part of the dispatcher and the on-duty supervisor that night,” said San Juan County Sheriff Ron Krebs. “The family is rightfully incredibly upset, as are we here at the Sheriff’s office. Everyone involved understands it was not the right thing to do.”

Mayson, a newly hired OPALCO apprentice lineman, was staying in a vacation rental cabin when a masked, gloved assailant allegedly came into his home around 3:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 9. He says the man held a gun to Mayson’s head, threatened to kill him and his daughter and stated that he “had nothing left to live for” and was “not afraid to die,” according to Mayson’s stepfather Dan Kimple, who spoke during an OPALCO board meeting on Feb. 19.

According to Kimple, his son texted his brother just after the assailant left. His brother came to the cabin, where they together called 9-1-1. They both spoke with the dispatcher who allegedly told them that since the gunman had left there was no need to wake the deputy on-call.

“It is this very thing that erodes the community’s confidence in us,” said Krebs. “This is one of the most violent, in your face calls we’ve gotten. It was a home invasion with a gun. This (not sending a deputy immediately) should’ve never happened. Everyone here feels that we let the community down. ”

Krebs says new protocols to ensure this will not happen again are already in place.

“It is being dealt with, it has been dealt with, it was not a malicious thing, it was an unfortunate error that will never, never happen again,” said Krebs.

Krebs and County Councilman Rick Hughes will be having a Town Hall meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 24 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Eastsound Fire Hall to discuss the slow emergency response time to the 911 call.

Two days after Mayson was assaulted, on Feb. 11, death threats were found written on the OPALCO headquarters building in Eastsound. All employees were immediately sent home and both Orcas island and Friday Harbor offices were shut down for two days.

The two incidents are believed to be connected.

“When you look at the statements from that night it points to someone on the inside who has reason to be upset,” said Krebs. “Those with the most reason would be someone recently fired from OPALCO or someone who was turned down for the job. We have interviewed everyone who applied, who was turned down and who was fired. At this point we’re not ruling them all out but we have no heavy suspects.”

At the OPALCO board meeting, Mayson, Kimple and other family members asked OPALCO to consider adding to the reward money being offered by the Sheriff’s department to anyone with information leading to the arrest of the assailant.

“This is serious, serious business in our island community,” said Kimple. “If we keep pushing, if we get the reward up there maybe someone will talk.”

The sheriff’s department put in $2,500 and Kimple says he has pledges that total nearly $7,500 from community members. The OPALCO board voted to match the funds up to $10,000, which could raise the reward to almost $20,000.

“It is so important for us to protect our community and our employees,” said Foster Hildreth, OPALCO General Manager. “For someone to think it’s okay to put a gun to somebody’s head just because they got a job – it’s appalling.”

Kimple said he hopes the community can “stick together” and “not let this drop.”

“The message has to be sent that what happened won’t be tolerated,” he said.

Anyone with information is urged to call the San Juan County Sheriff’s Department at 360-378-4151 or the anonymous tip line at 370-7629.