Ferndale police investigating suspected murder-suicide early Labor Day
Ferndale Police are investigating a suspected murder-suicide that occurred early Labor Day in a home along Grandview Road.
Officers were sent at approximately 12:19 a.m. Monday, Sept. 5, to the report of a shooting in the 2000 block of Grandview Road, according to information emailed to The Bellingham Herald by city spokesperson Riley Sweeney.
Police arrived to find 44-year-old James Hayes and 44-year-old Robert Beaugez dead from apparent gunshot wounds, Sweeney reported. A witness identified both men to police.
The witness reported that Hayes arrived at Beaugez’s home and kicked open the door, according to Sweeney.
After a short fight between the two, Hayes shot Beaugez, Sweeney reported. Hayes then shot himself, according to witness reports.
Medical personnel pronounced both men deceased at the scene.
“This is an active homicide investigation, and more details will be released as they become available to the public,” Sweeney wrote.
Whatcom County Superior Court records show Hayes petitioned for and was granted his right to possess a firearm in 2019 after he was convicted in Whatcom County of conspiracy to commit second-degree assault with a deadly weapon and unlawful possession of a firearm by a juvenile. Those convictions stemmed from a 1995 incident when Hayes was 17.
LexisNexis records show Hayes most recently lived in Bellingham, but he had also resided elsewhere in Whatcom County.
Beaugez’s death represents the third suspected murder in Ferndale so far this year after the city saw only one in the previous 10 years (the 2017 death of 65-year-old William Herman Koop Jr.), according to Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs crime data.
This story was originally published September 6, 2022 at 8:32 AM.
