Fugitive arrested decades after cop's shooting

In the 23 years since he fled a Washington state prison and assumed a false identity, Michael Dunaway had lived a relatively nondescript life.

Sure, the cops in the rural Nebraska towns where he lived knew he had debt troubles and didn't have a job until recently opening a barbecue-catering business, said Keith County Sheriff Earl Schenck.

But they knew him as little more than a "pain in the posterior" and a "know-it-all," Schenck said.

Then Social Security agents arrived in Paxton, Neb., population 500, and Dunaway's true story unfolded — how he had filled a Seattle police officer with buckshot, escaped from prison in Monroe after serving seven years of a 10-year sentence and took on the identity of Jim Schultz, his paraplegic nephew.

Indeed, it's likely Dunaway, now 55, wouldn't have been caught if the real Schultz, who lives in Wisconsin, had not had problems getting his disability checks, Schenck said

"It pretty well surprised us," Schenck said, adding that Dunaway has been booked into jail on an escape warrant. "I guess you get too complacent in the smaller towns. You know what's going on, who everybody is — and then you find out even you don't know them."

Dunaway appeared briefly in court in Keith County, Neb., on Friday. He has an extradition hearing Monday.

Reached at his Seattle home last night, retired policeman Emett Kelsie said he didn't even know Dunaway had escaped prison in 1982. Kelsie, 60, still has buckshot lodged in his head.

"I'm disappointed. The system failed," he said.

Schenck, a sheriff's deputy and two federal agents showed up at Dunaway's house Thursday. For about 20 minutes, Dunaway insisted he was Schultz, Schenck said. When federal agents laid out the real details of his life, Dunaway acknowledged who he was.

Schenck can account for the last decade or so of Dunaway's life — he married in 1991, had a son and has lived in Paxton and nearby Ogallala since 1995.

But details about the other years since his escape are unclear.

Around noon Dec. 1, 1975, Officer Kelsie saw "a junker car" filled with people traveling slowly down Rainier Avenue South.

Kelsie, then 31, tailed the car for a while before pulling it over in a Safeway parking lot, near the intersection of Rainier and South Andover Street, because it seemed suspicious.

Kelsie asked the 25-year-old driver, Dunaway, to get out of the car. The officer noticed a sawed-off shotgun on the floor next to the driver's door and grabbed it. Dunaway pulled out another gun, and Kelsie sprinted for cover behind nearby parked cars.

"I ran for the cars, and they were shooting while I ran," said Kelsie, who retired in 2000. "I could hear them shooting, and I was laying on my back."

Kelsie fired the shotgun under the cars toward Dunaway and the other people shooting.

Also in Dunaway's car were two 18-year-old men, two girls, ages 15 and 17, and the older girl's 6-month-old baby.

Buckshot riddled Kelsie, who was shot in the arm, head and back. Adrenaline kept him from noticing the pain, he said last night.

As the officer ran for shelter behind another car, Dunaway and his passengers took off, Kelsie said.

The next day, Dunaway was arrested while hiding in a vacant house. The two male passengers also were arrested, and the two girls were held as material witnesses. All five were described as transients who last lived in Omaha, Neb.

After Dunaway was convicted of first-degree assault, Kelsie said, he pretty much forgot about the Rainier Valley shooting. He recalled that Dunaway had mailed him a letter soon after beginning his prison sentence. He professed his religious beliefs, and said God must have been watching out for Kelsie that day.

Kelsie, who was hired by the Seattle Police Department in 1967, retired as a lieutenant in the homicide bureau.

The Washington state Department of Corrections could not be reached for comment last night, but Schenck said he has talked to state prison officials several times this week, and they were surprised and pleased by the arrest.

No details were available last night on how Dunaway escaped from Monroe.

Schenck said Keith County officials are finding Dunaway a public defender. An agent with the Office of the Inspector General, Social Security division, in St. Louis told the Keith County News that Dunaway also was being investigated for identity theft.

While Schenck led Dunaway back to jail yesterday, the fugitive said he had been "a good boy" during his time on the lam, Schenck said.

While living in Keith County, Dunaway has received speeding tickets and was granted a permit for a handgun, the newspaper reported.

"He said to us today that, 'Dunaway died 23 years ago when I walked away from the pen, and I'm no longer him,' " Schenck said. "We, in law enforcement, don't look at it that way."

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com