Samurai sword altercation may have been over new roommate, according to police report

Published 5:09 pm Wednesday, February 9, 2011

EDITOR’S NOTE: The story that ran in our Feb. 9 issue unintentionally reversed the roles of the men involved. What follows is the corrected text.

A verbal property dispute between roommates became physical and bloody Jan. 31 when one man pulled a so-called “samurai sword” on another.

Weston Ross escaped to a neighbor with his wounds, but the second man, Todd Clements, was locked into a brief standoff with Bonney Lake Police once they arrived on scene at 208th Avenue East.

According to the police report, Ross, a resident on the 9600 block of 208th Avenue East, walked across the street, covered in blood, to a neighbor’s home and asked her to call the police.

He told arriving officers that he had gotten into a heated argument with Clements, the house owner from whom Ross rents a room, over the addition of a new roommate Clements said he did not recognize.

In the midst of the argument, Ross grabbed a sword from the top of his television set and allegedly attacked Clements with it. Clements claimed the sword was grabbed unprovoked as the fight escalated, but Ross claimed he grabbed it in self-defense after Clements began throwing punches.

Both men struggled for control of the sword with both men cutting their hands on the blade and Ross sustaining multiple bruises from alleged kicks and punches. Clements eventually took the sword and escaped into the bathroom, where he hid in the shower to call 911. At police request, he crawled out of the bathroom, down the hall and outside to meet police.

Additional police had arrived to block off the street and coax out Clements. Initial testimony from Ross suggested he might have a rifle with him inside the premises.

“All we saw was police, cars, and a couple of bloody people,” said Katie VanParys, the manager of nearby Bonney Lake Fitness. “I thought, at first, that it was an accident.”

Ross initially refused to come out, but he eventually relented and came outside, where he was treated for his injuries.

Both men were transported to Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup for their lacerations, which were “significant,” but not life-threatening, said police spokesman Daron Wolschleger. In Clements’s case, the injuries required surgery. Ross underwent a CAT scan for his pummeling injuries.

An investigation is being conducted and charges on both subjects are pending, Wolschleger said.