Rainier, Washington



From the Olympia Olympian of July 3, 2004

Shooting followed long feud



Gunman had restraining order against slain man accused of threats



A 49-year-old man shot and killed in a neighborhood southeast of Rainier had been accused in the past of making threats and vandalizing the property of the man who gunned him down.



Scott J. Keith, of 15117 McIntosh Lane S.E., died early Friday at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle from multiple gunshot wounds. Keith was wounded about 200 yards from his home, on the property of a family with whom he had feuded during the past few years, Thurston County sheriff's Capt. Dan Kimball said.



The shooter, Donald Skewis, 44, and his wife obtained a restraining order last year against Keith after they outlined in court a log of vandalism to their property, intimidating behavior and threats they alleged Keith and his family had made toward them.



The restraining order was in place when Keith approached Skewis around dusk with a baseball bat on Skewis' property on McIntosh Lane, just off 148th Avenue. Skewis ordered him to stop and fired his .357 revolver several times when Keith came toward him, Kimball said.



What prompted the deadly confrontation Thursday was still under investigation, he said.



"There was a history of issues between the shooter and the deceased," Kimball said.



He said Skewis was questioned but is not likely to be charged with a crime because the shooting appears to have been in self-defense.



Investigators found that in addition to the baseball bat, the victim had a footlong, sheathed knife tucked into the back of his pants. His blood was found on Skewis' property.

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