BREMERTON, Wash. — A Kitsap County man was charged Thursday with second-degree domestic violence murder and fourth-degree assault related to the death of his grandfather.
The Kitsap County Sheriff's Office (KCSO) was called to the 6900 block of Old Military Road north of Bremerton to a report of an assault being carried out at a nearby home Wednesday morning.
A resident of the house had gone to a neighbor and said she had been assaulted and her son was beating her father in the family's home, according to court documents. The woman said her son was under the influence of drugs, possibly meth or fentanyl.
The neighbor went to the home to check on the woman's father, but the suspect, identified as Holden James Lippard-Taste, prevented him from entering the home, saying his grandfather was asleep. The neighbor observed blood on Lippard-Taste, according to court documents.
KCSO deputies arrived on the scene and spoke with the suspect through a second-story window. Lippard-Taste refused to let deputies inside to check on the victim, court documents said.
Deputies broke into the home and found the victim lying face down on the floor, with blood around him. The victim did not have a pulse, according to court documents.
The suspect refused to leave the room he was barricaded in, saying he had "committed murder" and he wasn't "coming out." A KCSO sergeant who was speaking with the suspect through the window said he could see scratches on the suspect's face and chest and blood on his hands and arms, according to court documents.
The suspect surrendered after two hours of negotiations and was taken into custody just after 9 a.m.
Neither the suspect nor any officers were injured, according to the sheriff's office.
Lippard-Taste initially invoked his right to remain silent, but changed his mind and decided to make a statement to investigators, court documents said.
Investigators said Lippard-Taste was "suffering from some psychosis." The suspect blamed the murder on an imaginary person he claimed to be linked to mentally and said the person struck his grandfather with a hammer with a red rubber handle. A hammer fitting that description was located on the kitchen table at the home and taken as evidence, according to court documents.
Evidence indicates the victim sustained "multiple blunt force trauma," court documents said.