Yelm Makes International News Feed
+ Daily Beast: Man Who Allegedly Opened Fire on Jehovah’s Witness Building Accused of Hate Crime
Man charged with hate crime for 2018 shooting at Yelm Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall
The suspect shot about 35 rifle rounds at the Yelm Kingdom Hall, causing over $10,000 in damage in May of 2018.
From KING-5 TV News, NBC Seattle:
An Olympia man was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in Seattle in connection with a 2018 shooting that damaged the Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall in Yelm.
Michael Layes, 50, allegedly fired approximately 35 rifle rounds at the worship center, causing over $10,000 in damage on May 15, 2018.
Layes is charged with one count of damage to religious property and one count of use of a firearm during a crime of violence, which is a hate crime. The original indictment charged him with one count of unlawful possession of an unregistered firearm, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
If convicted, Layes would face a sentence of up to 20 years in prison on the charge of damage to religious property involving the use of a dangerous weapon. If convicted on the unlawful possession of an unregistered firearm charge, he faces a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. He faces a sentence of at least 10 years in prison to run consecutive to any sentence imposed for the remaining firearms offense.
The incident was one of a string of attacks at Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Halls in the south Puget Sound region between 2018 and 2020.
Post a comment
No comments yet. You should be kind and add one!
By submitting a comment you grant Yelm Community Blog a perpetual license to reproduce your words and name/web site in attribution. Inappropriate and irrelevant comments will be removed at an admin’s discretion. Your email is used for verification purposes only, it will never be shared.