Oak Harbor police seek armed, dangerous man after Libby Road search

Oak Harbor police are asking the public to help find James L. Mathis, a 39-year-old Oak Harbor resident they described as armed and dangerous after a March 31 search on Libbey Road turned up nothing. Deputies from the Island County Sheriff’s Office and officers from the Oak Harbor Police Department went to a home after a tip said Mathis was hiding there, and the scene was serious enough that police brought an armored vehicle out of caution.

The department waited to make the operation public until it was over, saying the delay was meant to keep Mathis from being warned and to protect the integrity of the search. The result was no arrest and an active safety concern in a residential area where police believed Mathis might be staying.

That search followed an earlier public request on March 27, when Oak Harbor police asked for help locating Mathis and warned that he was armed and dangerous. Mathis later failed to appear for a hearing in Island County Superior Court and was wanted on a $250,000 warrant. He also had four earlier outstanding warrants, including one tied to a previous felony harassment case.

The underlying case began Feb. 9, when a woman reported that Mathis threatened to kill her and a friend, threw items at her, bruised her, broke a car windshield and later stabbed her pitbull. Prosecutors charged him in Island County Superior Court with first-degree animal cruelty and two counts of felony harassment. The dog was treated at an Oak Harbor veterinary office, with crisis-care funding from Whidbey Animals’ Improvement Foundation, and later had drainage tubes removed two weeks after suffering a two-inch stab wound.

City of Oak Harbor also reposted the alert and said Mathis was wanted on multiple violent felony and misdemeanor charges. Police have not said he was taken into custody, and the search remains a reminder that a warrant case tied to threats, animal cruelty and multiple agencies can quickly become a broader public-safety operation in Oak Harbor.