Man faces felony charges after vehicle crashes at Al Borlin Park

A 30-year-old homeless man alleged to have intentionally crashed his Subaru into concrete dividers at Al Borlin Park, seriously injuring his girlfriend on Saturday, Oct. 6, is facing three felony domestic violence charges in the Everett Division of Snohomish County District Court.

James T. Rodgers, Jr. was charged on Oct. 10 with vehicular assault, harassment (threat to kill) and hit-and-run injury, but the case could be transferred over to Snohomish County Superior Court prior to the Oct. 26 felony dismissal deadline.

Monroe Police officers responded to the 7-11 in the 200 block of East Main Street around 8:44 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 6, for a report of a man yelling at a woman, and then that the couple had left in a red Subaru.

The vehicle was located crashed into a concrete divider and the gate to the entrance at Al Borlin Park a short time later, according to a police report, and Rodgers was reportedly seen running away.

Officers located Rodgers’ girlfriend 40 yards from the vehicle, with fresh blood on her head from where it struck the windshield during the collision, as well as dried blood from earlier injuries she sustained when Rodgers allegedly struck her, according to the police report.

She reportedly said Rodgers “hit me in the face at the laundromat, he does it all the time,” according to the police report.

A K9 unit was unable to locate Rodgers that night.

His girlfriend was transported to EvergreenHealth Monroe for treatment, which is where detectives interviewed her about the events that led up to the collision.

The two reportedly met at a halfway house in Everett in February 2017, and she told detectives he had abused her frequently since then and required her to provide him with heroin, according to the police report, and that they’d smoked the morning of the crash. Both are now homeless, and Rodgers was living out of the Subaru, she reported.

Rodgers allegedly became upset and repeatedly screamed for her to get out of his vehicle prior to the Oct. 6 collision.

“He began punching her in the mouth with his fists and then tried to drag her our of the car,” the report states. “She was able to get back into the car and then told James, ‘You might as well just kill me.’ He replied by stating, ‘Okay, that’s what we’re going to do.’”

She reportedly told detectives Rodgers wanted to kill them, and that he accelerated when they reached Al Borlin Park. Neither was wearing a seatbelt, according to the report, and only the driver’s side airbags deployed during the crash.

Rodgers was arrested the next day, and reportedly told detectives he lost control of the vehicle, but the police report states “the tracks were completely straight and did not show any signs of breaking or attempting to turn the wheel prior to impact.” Rodgers reportedly told officers he saw his girlfriend’s injuries, but fled because he was scared.

“He wanted to kill us,” his girlfriend told detectives, according to the police report.

A person walking in the park on Monday, Oct. 8, found a pipe bomb and brought it to the police department in the 800 block of West Main Street around 3 p.m. Monroe Police were investigating whether the pipe bomb and collision were connected.

“It was near the area where the guy crashed his car trying to hurt his girlfriend,” said MPD administrative director Debbie Willis of the location where the person found the pipe bomb. “We don’t know if it happened to be there, or if it was in the car.”

An officer outside directed the Samaritan to leave the pipe bomb in the parking lot, and it was surrounded with cones until the regional bomb squad could respond from Everett, Willis said.

A device was used to cut the pipe bomb in half, she said, “and there was powder inside, so it was the real deal.”