42 tires slashed at Army recruiting office in Silverdale; student arrested

SILVERDALE — A college student was arrested Sunday in the slashing of 42 tires on 13 government vehicles in an Army recruiting office parking lot, saying he was angry about the war in Iraq, authorities said.

Following a number of calls about a man wearing black and slashing tires, two deputies stopped a 19-year-old college student from Colorado as he tried to run from the lot shortly after midnight Sunday, a Kitsap County sheriff's office report said.

The man put up his hands, dropped a knife and, after being made to lie on the ground and being read his rights, asked, "Is this the time where I can confess?" deputies wrote.

On a portable breath test, his blood alcohol level registered .168, more than twice the legal threshold for intoxication, according to the report.

He told deputies he decided to slash the tires of Army recruiting vehicles because he "hated the military and the government and the war we were in."

He was jailed for investigation of first-degree malicious mischief, a dangerous-weapon violation for the knife and being a minor in possession of alcohol, with bail set at $10,000.