At 1:55 PM Seattle Police responded to a domestic disturbance in the Cottage Grove neighborhood in West Seattle, after they received a call from Terry Wendt that his “ex-boyfriend [was] destroying his car.”
After Wendt refused to go out and purchase beer and cigarettes for his domestic partner, Robert James, he went outside to mow his front lawn. James came outside and began to stomp on the lawnmower before picking up several bricks and throwing them through Wendt’s BMW’s windows. James then then used an ax to smash the body and windshield of the car.
James then ran back into the house that he rents with Wendt and two other tenants, barricading himself in the basement.
Patrol officers arrived at the house on Delridge and SW Brandon and cordoned of the block. A negotiator and the SWAT team arrived and spent the next 3 hours attempting to coax James out of the house, eventually firing tear gas canisters through several windows in an attempt to force him out. There were early reports that he had taken hostages, but SPD confirmed that James was alone in the basement and was not in possession of any firearms. James surrendered to police and is currently being held at the southwest precinct.
Terry Wendt
According to Wendt, “this was at least the fifth or sixth time” James had been arrested for a violent outburst. There was a no-contact order in place between the couple and James had completed a four month jail sentence last November for violating the order. James was staying with Wendt because, he says “I couldn’t turn him out on the street.”
Wendt says that James battered his BMW because “he knew that I loved my car. He couldn’t stand for me to leave the relationship with the car [intact],” adding that “It’s just a car really. I can go back to riding a bicycle.”
As the police tape came down and the news crews drove off, Wendt returned to mowing his lawn.
Sounds like it might already be over with.West Seattle Blog has more details including why that axe is stuck in that BMW's windshield.