Whatcom County man accused of shooting sheriff’s deputies on trial for attempted murder

A Whatcom County man who is accused of attempting to kill two Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office deputies by shooting them in their faces roughly 2.5 years ago felt like he was “under siege” that day after his neighbors grabbed firearms, walked around the neighborhood and fired several rounds into the air or in his direction following a neighborhood dispute, the man’s public defense attorney argued during opening statements of his attempted murder jury trial Wednesday, Sept. 11.

Joel Berck Young, 63, of Maple Falls, is currently on trial in Whatcom County Superior Court for two counts of attempted first-degree murder stemming from the Feb. 10, 2022 shooting of now-retired sheriff’s deputies Ryan Rathbun and Jason Thompson in the Peaceful Valley neighborhood of Maple Falls.

Young’s jury trial, which began Monday, Sept. 9, is expected to last approximately two to three weeks, according to court records.

Young has been incarcerated in the Skagit County Community Justice Center in lieu of $5 million bail since his arrest on Feb. 10, 2022. He was recently brought back to Whatcom County, where he remains incarcerated in the Whatcom County Jail throughout the duration of his jury trial.

Young is facing two counts of attempted first-degree murder. There are three ways to charge first-degree murder in Washington state. Young is charged under the first prong, which alleges he acted with premeditated intent to cause the death of another person. Both of his attempted murder charges include enhancements that allege Young was armed with a firearm at the time, and that he knew the victims were law enforcement officers acting in their official duties.

If convicted, Young faces up to life in prison.

Young was previously facing additional charges of two counts of second-degree assault while armed with a firearm, one count of felony harassment and six counts of reckless endangerment. All of those charges were dropped at the start of Young’s jury trial Monday, Sept. 9, court documents show.

At the time of the shooting in mid-February 2022, Rathbun and Thompson were working as the foothills neighborhood deputies for the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office. Rathbun had been in that position for roughly two years, while Thompson had been in the position for only a few months.

Following the shooting, Rathbun returned to duty in late December 2022, while Thompson returned to duty in early January 2023, The Bellingham Herald previously reported. Both suffered significant injuries and permanent damage from the shooting.

Rathbun retired in December 2023. He had been with the sheriff’s office since 2009. Thompson, who had been with the sheriff’s office since 2008, retired in May 2024, according to Deb Slater, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office.

Both were awarded a state Medal of Honor in May 2023 for their actions during the shooting.

The two deputies and one of their wives have since filed a civil lawsuit against Young. The lawsuit is on hold until Young’s criminal case resolves.

Defense opening

Regardless of whether Young actively and appropriately interpreted the situation happening in his neighborhood on the afternoon of Feb. 10, 2022, Young felt like he was under attack from his neighbors, Kurt Parrish, Young’s deputy public defender argued during his opening statements in court Wednesday.

Young’s defense team, which includes Parrish and Starck Follis, director of the Whatcom County Public Defender’s Office, does not dispute the fact that Young shot now-retired deputies Rathbun and Thompson that day.

They are, however, arguing that Young did not act with premeditation and intent, and therefore should not be found guilty of attempted first-degree murder.

“Now there’s not a lot factually that we disagree with. There are ultimately going to be two issues that are going to be argued in closing arguments — premeditation and intent. The judge is going to define those terms for you, but ultimately it’s whether or not Mr. Young deliberated to the point of making a decision to kill deputies Thompson and Rathbun specifically. And secondarily, whether or not he intended to do it at the moment that he pulled the trigger,” Parrish told the jury made up of predominantly women on Wednesday.

On Feb. 10, 2022, Young was in his home along Green Valley Drive, north of Kendall, with his adult son. At some point that afternoon, Young began drinking alcohol, and his son left to grab food and run errands, Parrish said.

Young’s next door neighbor to the east had recently died, and the house had been acquired by Ron DeBoer, a friend of the neighbor’s. That afternoon, DeBoer was cleaning up the property and began burning wet wood and items in a fire pit in the backyard. There was a breeze, which caused smoke from the fire to blow toward Young’s house, Parrish, the defense attorney, said.

The smoke began agitating Young “to an extreme degree,” in part due to Young suffering from emphysema, Parrish said.

At some point, Young went outside and confronted DeBoer and told him to put the fire out. Young came back shortly after with a shotgun and fired one round into the air.

“The combination of Mr. Young’s personal health condition … and his intoxication and his general feelings about his neighbors, in total, led him to make an impetuous decision. There is no doubt it was an ill-advised decision to go into his backyard and fire off this shotgun round into the air,” Parrish said.

That shotgun shell landed in the backyard of the Deeter’s house. The Deeters took their kids inside, before Cody Deeter and Jesse Marshall, a friend who was also living on Green Valley Drive, grabbed their firearms and came back outside, Parrish said.

Deeter and Marshall walked around the neighborhood with a shotgun and a handgun, before Marshall allegedly fired two rounds from his shotgun either into the air or in the direction of Young’s house, Parrish told the jury Wednesday.

It was shortly after this that Dep. Rathbun arrived, followed by Dep. Thompson. Both tried to make contact with Young, believing they were initially investigating a misdemeanor offense of unlawful discharge of a firearm, Parrish said. Young opened and closed the front door of his house roughly three times, each time armed with a shotgun and exchanging limited statements or yelling expletives at the deputies.

The fourth time Young opened the door, he fired two rounds from his shotgun, hitting both deputies in their faces. Thompson was shot first, then Rathbun.

While there’s “no doubt” that Young fired those rounds, Parrish said, Young did allegedly tell a detective during an interrogation interview following his arrest that he was “dreadfully sorry” about what happened.

“So all in all, due to a combination of really an imperfect storm — the smoke from DeBoer’s house, the relations Joel had had with his neighbors, the knee-jerk reactions from the neighbors to grab their firearms and to engage in combat — Mr. Young felt that he was under siege,” Parrish told the jury Wednesday. “What’s going to happen at the end of this case when we come back for closing arguments is you’re going to be tasked with determining whether or not those shots were premeditated and intentional. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that deputies Thompson and Rathbun did their jobs incorrectly; you will never hear that from us. What happened that day was an absolute tragedy, but it does not make Mr. Young guilty of the charges that the state has chosen to levy against him.”

Prosecution opening

While the prosecution’s version of events differs only slightly from that of the defense, they argue that Young not only announced his intent to shoot the deputies but that he followed through on his threats, and that he made excited statements after doing so.

Similar to the defense’s version, the prosecution is alleging that Young began drinking sometime in the mid-afternoon of Feb. 10, 2022. Shortly before 4 p.m., Young’s adult son left the house to get food and run errands. It was around this time that DeBoer, Young’s next-door neighbor to the east, began burning wet wood and other items in his backyard, Whatcom County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Maggie Peach said during her opening arguments in court Wednesday. Whatcom County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Richey is also prosecuting the case with Peach.

The smoke from the fire wafted over Young’s house, which infuriated him, Peach said. Young went into his backyard and began yelling expletives at DeBoer, telling him to put the fire out. While DeBoer was contemplating what to do, Young went back into his house, returned with a shotgun and fired one round into the air over DeBoer’s head, Peach said.

The shell landed in the Deeter’s backyard, where they were outside with their children. They were “pretty upset,” and took the kids inside, before Deeter and Marshall returned outside with their own firearms. Several shotgun blasts were then heard, likely coming from outside the Deeter’s residence. DeBoer found himself in between “an exchange of words and shotgun blasts,” Peach told the jury Wednesday.

It’s at this point that several neighbors heard the gunshots and called 911. Rathbun responded first, parking his vehicle down the street and approaching the neighborhood on foot. He found DeBoer in his driveway and Deeter and Marshall in the front yard of their residence. Rathbun did not see Young outside of his home when he arrived, Peach said.

DeBoer explained what had happened to Rathbun, who then radioed dispatch to tell them the situation was more calm than initially thought and that they didn’t need a lot of extra law enforcement personnel to come to the scene. Rathbun then went to speak with Deeter and Marshall as Thompson arrived.

While Thompson was speaking with Rathbun to understand the situation, Young’s front door opened, Peach said.

Rathbun said “Hi sir,” to which Young responded: “Wanna shoot?” Peach said.

Thompson told Young no, identified himself and Rathbun as law enforcement, and asked Young to come out and speak with them. Young responded with expletives, Peach said.

It was decided that Thompson would keep an eye on Young’s house from the corner of DeBoer’s garage, while Rathbun continued speaking with the neighbors.

“In a five-minute span, Joel repeatedly opens the door, hollers expletives at Dep. Thompson and closes the door,” Peach told the jury. Peach said Young then threatened the deputy, saying, “I’ll blow your head off.”

Young opened his door a fourth time, yelled at Thompson, and then shot Thompson in the face from roughly 50 feet away, Peach said. Rathbun ran over to where Thompson had been kneeling near the corner of DeBoer’s garage and fired several rounds from his shotgun in the direction of Young’s house.

Rathbun himself was then shot.

“The first deputy is shot while taking a knee, the second deputy is shot while standing with a rifle,” Peach said.

Following this, Young yelled “Whoohoo,” called Rathbun an expletive, and then laughed, all of which were recorded on the deputies’ body worn cameras and a neighbor’s cell phone video, Peach said.

A neighbor then ran over from the Deeter’s house and emptied a magazine from a handgun into Young’s house, which allowed Rathbun to pull Thompson out of the way and into DeBoer’s open garage, Peach said.

After shooting both deputies in their faces, Young called his son and told him not to come home, because he “just blew a sheriff’s head off.” When Young’s son asked if he was serious, Young told him he was, Peach said.

“Critically, you are going to hear from Dep. Thompson and Dep. Rathbun about everything they did that day to lower the temperature, to de-escalate a tense neighborhood situation, to be transparent in who they were and what they were doing; every step they took, based on their training and experience, to make sure this didn’t escalate,” Peach told the jury in court Wednesday. “And you’re going to hear that Joel Young did the exact opposite. At every turn, he turned the temperature up, and at every opportunity to cool things off, he went the other way. He didn’t fire two shotgun blasts at two separate deputies’ heads accidentally, or because he thought he was firing at someone else, or because he didn’t know what was going on. He fired those two shotgun blasts at those two faces because he wanted to.”