$1 million bail set in fatal Bellingham stabbing

| Andy BRONSON THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

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  To read the Whatcom County Prosecutor's affidavit of probable cause for detaining Derek Collier, click here

Bellingham Police Sgt. Ken Brown said detectives had been following leads on Collier’s whereabouts with little luck until Tuesday afternoon, when a Skagit County Sheriff’s Office deputy stopped Collier’s white Cadillac DeVille in the 500 block of Chuckanut Drive.

The driver of the Cadillac told police he had just purchased the vehicle used. Detectives found the person who had sold the vehicle, and traced Collier back to the Yew Street Road address.

Brown said police believe Collier had been moving around Western Washington, from Tacoma to Seattle to Whatcom and Skagit counties. Collier had also assumed a fake name sometime during the last month, Brown said.

“That was one of the things that made him so hard to catch up with,” Brown said. “He was moving around and not stopping in any one spot for too long.”

Brown said Collier did not provide any more information about what led to the fatal stabbing and police still assume it was an incident of road rage.

Though Brown said some of Collier’s friends have ties to local gangs, police do not believe Collier himself was a member or that gang affiliation had anything to do with the incident. Brown said there is no evidence Collier and Datskiy knew each other before the stabbing.

According to charging documents filed in Whatcom County Superior Court, Datskiy, a Mount Vernon resident, was having car trouble on the 1500 block of James Street on May 11 when a white Cadillac DeVille stopped behind him.

The passenger in Datskiy’s vehicle, Aleksandr Davidyuk, reported that Datskiy and the driver of the Cadillac both got out of their vehicles and exchanged words before the Cadillac driver stabbed Datskiy once in the stomach and drove away. Davidyuk drove Datskiy to St. Joseph Hospital, where he died of blood loss from the wound.

Davidyuk later picked Collier out of a photo lineup and identified him as the Cadillac driver, according to the documents.

At Collier’s court appearance, prosecutors justified the $1 million bail by noting that Collier had failed to appear for court dates eight times in the past. Collier has a handful of convictions for crimes that include theft, assault, robbery, burglary and unlawful possession of a firearm, according to court records.

Brown said detectives are gathering information on those who have helped Collier hide over the last month and will forward that to Whatcom County Prosecutor Dave McEachran, who will decide whether there is enough evidence to warrant charges of rendering criminal assistance.

Collier is scheduled to be arraigned June 20.

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