Hammer-Wielding Resident Almost Nails Mock Criminal

Police, volunteer firefighters and ambulance drivers were holding an emergency drill in Waitsburg when they got some unexpected help.

Part of the drill July 10 included a hostage situation in which volunteers acted out a boyfriend holding a knife to his girlfriend’s throat, said Marshal Michelle Long.

A deputy marshal had drawn his gun and was in a standoff with the boyfriend when retired businessman Bill Thompson rode up on his bike.

Sizing up the situation, Thompson picked up a hammer from a construction site.

“He was sneaking up behind the suspect and was going to conk him on the head,” Long said Friday.

He got within 15 feet before he realized it was only a drill.

“We were yelling at him to stop. It took us a few times to get through to him this was not real.”

Long says Thompson said “Oh,” put the hammer back, got on his bike and rode off.

Long, who knows Thompson and most of the other people in the Walla Walla County town of 1,100 says, “He’ll never live this one down.”

In the event of a real emergency it’s nice to know you can count on your neighbors, she said.

“It’s one of the nice things about living in a small town.”