On November 14, 1987, 31-year-old Island County Deputy Sheriff John Robert Saxerud was killed in the line of duty while processing a DUI arrestee at the Island County Jail in Coupeville. Deputies Saxerud and William Heffernan had arrested 26-year-old Darrin Rand Hutchinson after he reportedly drove a blue Ford Pinto erratically and nearly struck the ferry toll booth at the Clinton ferry terminal. Deputies conducted a pat-down and placed Hutchinson in the patrol car for transport; a thin, 32-caliber Bersa semiautomatic pistol concealed at Hutchinson’s waist went undetected.

At the jail both deputies secured their service weapons in a lockbox before taking Hutchinson to the breathalyzer room. Hutchinson produced the concealed handgun and shot both deputies, killing them almost instantly. After the shootings he searched Saxerud’s pockets for car keys, stole a patrol car, crashed it through a garage door during his escape, and later abandoned it down a steep ravine. Hutchinson was located and arrested at his parents’ house the same day and was convicted on two counts of aggravated first-degree murder, receiving two life sentences.

Does anyone have recollections of the Clinton ferry terminal scene that morning or knew Deputy Saxerud and can share memories?