Moses Lake man sentenced for gun-waving incident

MOSES LAKE — A Moses Lake man who held a loaded gun to his head and threatened to shoot himself in Moses Lake in June will be spending a year in prison.

Brent McKinney, 32, of Moses Lake, pleaded guilty in Grant County Superior Court to second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm and third-degree assault-law enforcement officer. Each of the two counts carried standard sentencing ranges of 17-22 months.

McKinney was sentenced under a prison-based alternative, which is when a sentence is half of the standard range or 12 months, whichever comes first, and will be spending a year behind prison bars. On June 26 the Moses Lake Police Department received a report of a male, McKinney, leaving his home on West Marina Drive and claiming he was going to shoot himself. McKinney was later located by an officer walking on West Broadway Avenue with a pistol in his hand.

A MLPD officer slowly drove behind the suspect and McKinney was told to put the weapon down, but he refused and held the gun up against his head. More officers arrived at the scene, but McKinney still refused to comply with police directives and continued waiving the gun around.

“I retrieved my less lethal shotgun from the trunk of my car while (another MLPD officer) got into my driver('s) seat. (The other officer) drove my car while I walked beside it using it as cover. I was attempting to get close enough to take a shot at Brent with my less lethal shotgun and hopefully cause him to drop the gun,” wrote an officer.

McKinney eventually stopped walking, threw the pistol onto the ground, got onto the ground and was taken into custody.

“Brent was extremely upset. Brent was essentially begging us to shoot and kill him. I informed Brent we were not going to do that. He then said something along the lines of what if I do something. I told him we were not going to shoot him. Brent then kicked me about three times in my right leg,” wrote an officer.

After examining the gun McKinney was holding, a 9mm Ruger, officers discovered the gun was previously stolen during a vehicle prowl in Moses Lake. Police also discovered the pistol was loaded with a bullet in the chamber and eight bullets in the magazine.

Richard Byrd can be reached via email at city@columbiabasinherald.com.