There are several lessons from a deadly imbroglio in rural Washington State on the day before Valentine’s Day, chief among them being: don’t steal other people’s political signs from their property because somebody might end up dead.
Joshua Tryon, whose girlfriend, Kamran Cohee, was killed in a shooting erupting from the alleged theft, said he “can’t believe this is happening. I just want to wake up from this nightmare.”
And who can blame him? Tryon admits he was the one who stopped his truck to steal what is reported by a neighbor to have been a Loren Culp for Governor sign on the private property of a couple living on a rural Mt Vernon, Wash., road. Culp, a Republican, lost to Democrat Jay Inslee in November’s election.
The Daily Mail reports that the sign was “believed to be in support of Donald Trump,” though so far there’s no local reporting to support that belief.
Tryon and his girlfriend, Cohee, who was 32, were driving Tryon’s truck back from sledding on Saturday afternoon February 13th.
They stopped, either to let air out of their tires, as one version of the story goes, or to simply steal the sign, as Tryon admitted to KING 5 News when he lamented that he has “a lot of guilt because I’m ultimately the one that stopped to get that sign.”
I think I threw it in the back of my truck and I hopped back into my truck. I should have left at that moment but my adrenaline was rushing and …
His adrenaline rush led to a conflict with the homeowner, 58-year-old John Conijn, who thought Tryon and Cohee were “messing with their mailbox,” according to Undersheriff Chad Clark.
The two men got into a physical fight.
According to court documents, the men both told deputies they got into a physical fight. The homeowner said he was chased back to the house, but the driver said he punched the homeowner through the open window of their truck.
Then, apparently during the fight, Kamran Cohee got out of the truck and things got worse.
Conijn said he confronted Cohee and a man about the sign. Moments later, a fight broke out, and Conijn claimed he was “chased back to his residence.”
Conijn told detectives that Cohee and the man were beating on his door with a wheelbarrow.
Moments later, he and his wife Angela came back outside and Angela shot a gun “towards the end of the driveway where the vehicle was located.” The bullet hit Cohee where she was standing between the house and the car.
Tryon admitted to KING 5 News that, “me and him were just fightin” and that there was no need for the wife to get her gun.
Undersheriff Clark wouldn’t disclose to PJ Media what kind of gun was used.
Conjin has been in jail on a second-degree murder charge. Her $500,000 bail was halved on Wednesday. Her attorney argued in court that the shooting was in defense of others. John Conjin is charged with fourth-degree assault.
No charges have been leveled against Tryon, who started it all, engaged in a fight, and committed an apparent act of theft.
For his part he says that “there’s no way this was self defense and the evidence will prove that. Kamron was in front of the truck. We were nowhere near their house.”
A funeral fund has been established for the dead woman, where the sponsor wrote of her: “Many know of Kamran’s struggles and that she has been rebuilding her life for the better. At this time we are looking for any help we can get.”
It goes without saying that no one should die for stealing a sign, but there may be a bit more to this story.
While details – and this obviously flawed timeline – are still being fleshed out, I’ll be keeping track. We know if this had been a Trump sign, then obviously coverage would be inflamed and hyperbolic and the incident, naturally, would be all Trump’s and his “crazy cult followers'” fault, or some such scripted pap.
But this case addresses the issue of self-defense. In the Pacific Northwest, specifically Portland and Seattle—and Mt. Vernon is about an hour north of the Emerald City—an apparent effort is underway to diminish the ability to claim self-defense not only by cops, but by mere civilians such as when an antifa mob descends upon you, as in the case of Mike Strickland, and perhaps even against “struggling” people who allegedly use a wheelbarrow to bash your door in after stealing your stuff, if indeed that’s what happened.
Watch this space.
Victoria Taft is the host of “The Adult in the Room Podcast With Victoria Taft” where you can hear her series on “Antifa Versus Mike Strickland.” Find it here.Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Parler, MeWe, Minds @VictoriaTaft
Join the conversation as a VIP Member