‘Pretty chilling.’ Man accused of threatening to kill Pasco councilman and his wife

A Pasco city councilman’s neighbor is in jail, accused of spewing a profanity-laden death threat at the councilman and his wife.

The threat was captured on a security camera recording Friday and turned over to Pasco police.

“It was pretty chilling,” Councilman Peter Harpster told the Tri-City Herald this week. “I was at work and called my wife and had her take our children and leave.”

When officers arrived to investigate, Robert A. Martinolich, 34, refused to come out of his West Pasco home, leading to a four-hour standoff on Friday.

Now, he’s being held in the Franklin County jail in lieu of $15,000 bail on suspicion of felony harassment. He is refusing to leave his jail cell, even to go to court on Monday or Tuesday.

If he continues to refuse, a judge can approve of using force to bring him to a court hearing.

While Harpster has lived in the neighborhood with his wife and two grade-school-aged children for just a year, he said neighbors had told him Martinolich allegedly has terrorized others for years.

He can often be found in his backyard screaming disturbing statements within hearing of neighbors. One time when a neighbor called police, Martinolich was suspected of responding by killing one of his own chickens and throwing it on his neighbor’s porch.

Harpster, who is a land developer, said he’s had 35 previous recordings of Martinolich shouting across the fence..

He often makes the statements in the middle of the night or in the early hours of the morning. said Harpster.

On Friday morning, Harpster received a phone notification about a new audio recording from the security cameras at his house.

In the message, Martinolich named Harpster and his wife, making untrue claims that they are convicted felons and “deserve life in prison.”

“ I don’t care, I’m not going to hurt your kids. ... F--k Peter, f--k everybody ... if everybody dies, I don’t care. ... I am in hell, three days before I make the call. .... I’ll shoot you. ... then shut up,” according to court documents.

Pasco police Detective Julie Lee said in court documents that she found the statements alarming.

“Martinolich not only threatened Harpster, but his wife by name and (provided) the approximate ages of his children,” she wrote. “Martinolich even provided, what I interpret, as a 72-hour timeline in which he will shoot them.”

Police SWAT standoff

Martinolich allegedly had not left his home for weeks before making the threats and was often seen in the backyard of the house owned by his mother, according to public records.

When police tried to reach Martinolich by phone on Friday about the threat, he didn’t answer. There were reports that he owns guns, so police called the Tri-City Regional SWAT team for help arrest him.

While he didn’t resist arrest, he wouldn’t respond to police and didn’t come out of the house for four hours. Martinolich has no prior convictions, according to a search of online court records.

Investigators found a .40 caliber pistol, a .22 caliber rifle and numerous rounds of ammunition once they entered the house.

Harpster said he was impressed by the speed of the Pasco police. He went to the department at 11:30 a.m. and Martinolich was arrested by 8 p.m.

He hopes what happened to him encourages others in the community to also report any threatening behavior to police.

This story was originally published September 17, 2024 at 12:48 PM.