Oak Harbor teen charged after fire extinguisher sprayed into car

A fire extinguisher blast at an Oak Harbor traffic light turned what looked like a stunt into a criminal case, leaving two occupants of a car covered in white powder and one driver unable to see for several minutes.

Prosecutors charged a 16-year-old Oak Harbor boy in Island County Superior Court on May 13 with reckless endangerment, assault in the fourth degree and malicious mischief in the third degree. If convicted, he could face zero to 30 days of confinement under the standard juvenile sentencing range.

The incident happened May 10 at the intersection of Highway 20 and Beeksma Drive, according to an Oak Harbor police report. A girl was driving a car full of friends and had her windows down when another car pulled alongside them. The teens recognized the driver, and an electric bike rider then cut between the two cars. One of the girls yelled at him to do a wheelie.

Instead, police said, the teen in the other car pulled out a fire extinguisher and sprayed it into the girl’s car. The blast hit the driver and a passenger in the face, covering both with white powder. The driver said she could not see and had to wait a few minutes before pulling over. One girl reported getting a lot of powder in her mouth, while the other said it went up her nose. Both declined medical treatment.

The police report also describes a tense aftermath. One of the girls told investigators the suspect and his friend group had been bothering them recently, though she did not know why. While officers were talking with the victims, the boy called one of them and told her not to press charges. The girl said random people also called her and expressed anger that she was pursuing the case.

The suspect’s mother told police she had noticed a fire extinguisher in his room earlier and thought it was strange. That detail, along with the location and the open windows in an occupied car at a busy Oak Harbor intersection, helps explain why prosecutors treated the episode as more than a juvenile prank.

Under Washington’s juvenile sentencing standards, reckless endangerment is classified as offense category E and malicious mischief in the third degree as category D. In a town like Oak Harbor, where drivers, students and neighbors cross paths every day on Highway 20, the case underscores how quickly a reckless stunt can become a public-safety threat and a court matter.