Courthouse assault arrest made

SEATTLE – Police on Saturday arrested a 34-year-old man accused of stabbing a judge and shooting a sheriff’s deputy in a courthouse struggle, one day after he fled the small town of Montesano, Wash.

Law enforcement officers in neighboring Thurston County took Steven Daniel Kravetz into custody Saturday afternoon at his mother’s home in Olympia, Grays Harbor County Undersheriff Rick Scott said.

The gun taken from the deputy during Friday’s courthouse attack and other evidence were recovered, he said.

Scott identified Kravetz earlier in the day as the lone assailant in Friday’s attack that wounded Judge David Edwards and Deputy Polly Davin.

Kravetz’s mother called police to turn her son in after authorities released a flier with her photo and her son’s photo Saturday, according to the Seattle Times.

Kravetz was the only one in the house at the time of the arrest and gave himself up voluntarily around 1:30 p.m., said Olympia police Lt. Jim Costa. No one was injured.

“Why he was at the courthouse yesterday remains a mystery,” Scott said.

Scott said his deputies haven’t had contact with Kravetz since a 2005 domestic violence incident that was handled in Grays Harbor District Court. Kravetz recently made a number of public information records requests related to that incident, he added.

In 2008, Kravetz was convicted in Lewis County of third-degree assault and making false or misleading statements to a public servant.

Around lunchtime Friday, Davin responded to a report of a suspicious person at the courthouse and confronted a man. During a struggle, she was stabbed with either a small knife or scissors. The judge intervened, striking the assailant, who then stabbed him, authorities said.

Davin reached for her gun, but it was wrestled away by the man, who shot twice, striking her in the shoulder before fleeing, Scott said.

Both the judge and the sheriff’s deputy were treated and released from a hospital hours after the attack.

Kravetz fled the courthouse with the officer’s .45-caliber handgun after the attack and showed up about an hour or so later at the office of his former attorney and asked to use the phone, Scott said.