Whidbey Island man charged after firing rifle, threatening roommate in dispute

A dispute over dogs at a Zylstra Road home on Whidbey Island escalated into gunfire, sending one roommate out a bedroom window with his dog and into a neighbor’s house to call 911 after, court papers say, 39-year-old Anthony D. Soto fired six or seven shots from the doorway and threatened to kill him.

Prosecutors charged Soto in Island County Superior Court on April 21 with felony harassment and unlawful possession of a firearm in the second degree. He made his preliminary appearance the day before, on April 20, as deputies and prosecutors moved quickly through the early stages of the case.

The affidavit summary describes a tense shared living arrangement. Soto and three other men were living in the house. After an earlier argument over the dogs, Soto left for a hotel, then returned on April 17 with an AR-15-style rifle. One roommate texted the others not to come home because Soto was armed.

The next morning, the victim encountered Soto with the rifle. According to the court account, Soto then fired toward the doorway, forcing the roommate to barricade himself in a bedroom before escaping through a window with his dog. He ran to a neighbor’s house and called 911. Deputies later found Soto running from the back door with the rifle and ordered him to drop it. No injuries or property damage were found.

Prosecutors asked Judge Christon Skinner to set bail at $50,000, citing a California history that court papers described as including violent felony convictions, among them arson with great bodily injury and assault with a deadly weapon. Skinner instead set bail at $1,500 cash or a $10,000 bond. Soto posted the lower amount and was released the same day.

Washington law makes unlawful possession of a firearm in the second degree a felony for people with disqualifying prior convictions, including certain felonies and specified domestic-violence-related offenses, tying the charge to a defendant’s history rather than just the alleged possession in the current case. The fast-moving sequence on Whidbey Island underscores how quickly a household dispute can become a broader safety crisis when a rifle enters the picture.

Island County residents can track the case through the courthouse system in Coupeville, where most superior court files since 2007 are available for viewing in the courthouse lobby. The county jail roster is refreshed every three hours starting at midnight, a detail that may help monitor custody status as the case continues through Superior Court.