New charges filed against alleged BB gun shooter

EPHRATA - Prosecutors filed charges a second time against a man accused of being part of a string of broken windows in Moses Lake.

Prosecutor Angus Lee stated a count of malicious mischief in the second degree was filed in against William M. Lobie, 43, Moses Lake.

The Moses Lake man was also originally charged with possession of a firearm in the second degree, possession with the intent to deliver or manufacture marijuana and use of drug paraphernalia.

The charges were dismissed, after Grant County Superior Court Judge John Knodell ruled the police did not have probable cause to believe there was evidence in Lobie's home, according to court records.

"When Judge Knodell effectively dismissed the other charges against Lobie, we dismissed the malicious mischief charge without prejudice so it could be refiled after we determined if we were going to appeal his ruling," Lee stated.

After a six-month-long string of windows being broken using a BB gun, an undercover Moses Lake police officer heard a BB gun being fired, according to a Moses Lake police report. The officer reportedly spotted a silver Ford Mustang in the area. The car failed to stop at a stop sign and sped toward state Route 17.

Police spotted a silver Ford Mustang on West Broadway roughly two-and-a-half hours after the initial report. Officers followed the car, signaling it to stop on Division Street, according to the police report. Moses Lake police reportedly identified the Mustang Lobie was driving as the same one the undercover officer saw earlier in the night, according to court records.

Lobie, the driver, reportedly consented to a search of his car and officers found two BB pistols in a soft-sided lunch box. Lobie told police he forgot to take the guns out of the car after he and his son had gone shooting at the sand dunes during the weekend, according to the police report.