Family had sought protection from man suspected of shooting deputies

David Crable's mother, Patsy Crable, feared for her safety enough that she sought a protection order against her son in May — describing him as armed, suicidal, violent and abusing drugs.

It was the latest round in a troubling history of family fear and violence, Pierce County court records indicate.

David's mother wasn't the only family member to seek a protection order against him — his brother Jason Crable had sought his own order nearly two years earlier.

David, in turn, sought protection orders against both his mother and brother.

In June, Crable pleaded guilty in Pierce County Superior Court to unlawfully displaying a knife and to damaging property belonging to a family member. He was ordered to pay $800 in fines and court costs, to have no hostile contact with his brother Jason, and to take parenting classes.

The legal tussle between David and his family began in July 2007, when Jason Crable first sought a protection order against his brother, saying David had threatened to "kill my dogs and damage my car."

In that court filing, Jason said David had been arrested for domestic violence after the two men fought a few months earlier, but that Jason had dropped the charges after the two made up. The brothers were apparently living together at the time.

But after Jason and his girlfriend announced they were planning to move into their own place, David had promised to "ruin my life" and do everything he could to "mess up my move," according to the court filing.

Jason also said his brother was abusing drugs and alcohol and owned firearms. David had been suicidal in the spring of 2007, Jason said in the court filing, and had arrived at a hospital saying he wanted to kill himself.

That restraining order was lifted in 2008, after Jason said the two "no longer have a problem."

In her May filing in Pierce County Superior Court, Patsy Crable said David had choked his 16-year-old daughter, and had threatened to punch the girl in the face. Patsy Crable said she fled her own home in Spanaway, where Crable was living with his daughter, to move in with her other son Jason, who lived in Eatonville.

"Before I left home, he was always threatening suicide, and told his daughter he wanted to die," Patsy Crable wrote in the May 18 filing. She also said Crable owned guns.

She was granted a temporary order barring David Crable from the Spanaway house, but he opposed a permanent ban. He said in a May 19 court filing that he was enrolled in a drug-treatment program and needed to live in Spanaway to care for his daughter.

Patsy Crable withdrew her petition in July, saying she was moving to Oregon. David Crable, she said, would be moving into the Spanaway home to care for his daughter.

When David Crable sought a protection order against his mother this year, he said he'd been forced to call out Pierce County Sheriff's deputies to his home because "my mother would not stop harassing and causing a disruption to the household (verbal and physical abuse)."

He said his mother had called him names and attempted to slap him in the face.

In a second filing against his mother this year, David asked: "(If) I'm so violent, where is the proof to back up these allegations?"

Crable was also charged with DUI in Pierce County in February 2008, and was given a two-year diversion in July of that year after finishing treatment. He was fined $966 and sentenced to 24 hours of community service.

Crable complied with the terms of the diversion agreement until the weapons and malicious mischief charges, which resulted in his court supervision being extended for three additional years and an order for an ignition interlock device to be installed on his car.

Nick Perry: 206-515-5639 or nperry@seattletimes.com