Bail set at $50,000 for Bellingham man accused of shooting at protest near Capitol
The Olympian 12/15/2020 Martín Bilbao, The Olympian (Olympia, Wash.)
Dec. 15 Thurston County Superior Court set bail at $50,000 Monday for a 25-year-old Bellingham man who allegedly shot a person during a Saturday protest near the Capitol Campus in Olympia.
State Patrol troopers arrested Forest M. Machala Saturday on suspicion of first-degree assault while armed with a firearm, according to court documents. Machala reportedly attended an event where supporters of President Donald Trump clashed with black-clad, anti-fascist counter protesters.
The shooting occurred at 2:02 p.m. near the intersection of 15th Avenue Southwest and Columbia Street and left a 20-year-old man with serious injuries that required surgery at Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia.
The case stems back to 2004, when a then 12-year-old girl in foster care in Benton County began to report sexual abuse.
The girl, who is referred in court papers only as V.O., apparently endured this abuse until 2009, when she escaped her home and reported it to Police.
Tamaki Law Firm released information Wednesday, indicating the case had been settled prior to trial, and is now the largest (financially) sex abuse case ever settled in WA State. The State has agreed to award the victim $2 million dollars.
Tamaki Law says the girl began to report abuse at the hands of Abel Ortega. She had been placed through the foster care system with him and his wife Diana when she was 3 1/2 years old, in 1995. The lawsuit says the State failed to take actions when abuse began to be reported; other separate acts of abuse were also levied against Mr. Ortega.
Port Orchard man charged for shooting at pro-Trump rally Andrew Binion, Kitsap Sun
A Port Orchard man arrested at a pro-President Trump rally in Olympia for shooting a counter-protester was charged Wednesday in Thurston County Superior Court with first-degree assault.
Christopher Michael Guenzler, 27, is being held in the Thurston County Jail on $50,000 bail.
In the time since Guenzler appeared in court Monday, investigators reviewed several videos from the scene near downtown, from different angles, and determined it was Guenzler who fired at another man, said Deputy Prosecutor Lindsey Trakel.
The man who was shot sustained a “grazing” wound on his chest.