83-Year-Old Had Longtime Grudge Against Doctor Former Patient Invades Office With Gun And A 9-Year-Old Gripe

Kenneth Mott holds a grudge a long time.

The 83-year-old Cusick, Wash., man said he pulled a 9 mm handgun on a Spokane doctor Tuesday because the colon surgeon had refused to treat him nine years ago.

Intending to settle the score, the former sheep rancher said Wednesday he drove his faded blue 1978 Chevrolet Caprice from his trailer home in rural Pend Oreille County to Spokane.

“I was going to get even with the bastard, that’s why,” Mott said in a jail interview.

Mott, who now faces a second-degree assault charge, said Dr. James Colquhoun wouldn’t operate on his injured colon, causing him to live in pain ever since.

“That doctor I went to see yesterday, if he had helped me the first time I saw him, I could have lived a lot more comfortably,” said Mott, who uses a cane to walk and was pushed into court in a wheelchair Wednesday.

After his consultation with Colquhoun, Mott said he went to other doctors, none of whom could help. Mott suspects Colquhoun advised the others the colon problem didn’t exist.

But Colquhoun said he didn’t remember Mott when the man barged into the medical office at 12 E. Fifth at 1:30 p.m., demanding attention.

The doctor later checked his records and discovered that he had “visited with Mr. Mott” for 20 minutes in 1987.

Mott insisted he had no intention of shooting Colquhoun or anyone else, even though the gun he was carrying was loaded. One round was in the chamber, ready to be fired, police said.

“I wasn’t going to shoot him,” said Mott with a laugh. “If I was going to shoot him, I had a couple chances to do it. I saw him walking down the street before I went in. I could have put five rounds into him so fast it would have made his head swim.”

He smiled before continuing.

“But I was going to get him awfully excited, and I did,” said Mott, who described himself as a former “gun nut.”

According to witnesses and police, Mott yelled at the doctor for nearly 30 minutes before pulling out the gun.

“I told him I was prepared to shoot him,” Mott said in court Wednesday.

Colquhoun, 52, said he grabbed the pistol out of Mott’s hand before the man could point it at him.

“I feared for my staff and my patients,” the doctor said. “I think it was a very ordinary thing to do. You would have done the same thing.”

Colquhoun’s office manager saw what was happening and called police. “We called 911 and cleared the office,” said the woman, who refused to give her name.

Another employee said she feared Mott was going to shoot them all.

“The first thing we thought about was the Ridpath,” said the woman, who also asked not to be identified. Another elderly man shot two workers at a Ridpath Hotel restaurant last month before killing himself.

On Tuesday, a police SWAT team and several other officers quickly surrounded the Cowley Park Professional Building which houses Colquhoun’s office.

Police prepared for a hostage situation, not knowing that Colquhoun already had disarmed Mott.

A short time later, Mott was arrested without incident.

District Court Commissioner Virginia Rockwood, yelling into her microphone so Mott could hear, set bail at $50,000 on Wednesday, saying the elderly defendant is a danger to the community.

“I don’t have that kind of money,” replied Mott, who reportedly told detectives he would go after Colquhoun again if he was released.

Mott said later he doesn’t want anyone to bail him out.

“I want to go to court,” he said. “I want everyone to see what these doctors have done to me. They’ve treated me like a criminal for the past eight years.”

Colquhoun said he’s flabbergasted.

“It was bizarre by any standard,” said the doctor. “How do you look into the mind of someone like that?”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo