Bellingham man guilty of assault for shooting neighbor

A jury found a Bellingham man guilty of assault in the second degree for shooting his neighbor three times outside the front door of a Nevada Street duplex in 2013.

Kamuran Daniel Chabuk, 29, testified that he shot Josh Mark Kiener, 33, in self-defense as Kiener drunkenly followed him home and accused Chabuk, wrongly, of damaging his property. The two men were neighbors but strangers.

Kiener made comments that Chabuk took as threats. Kiener was not armed. He survived gunshots to his abdomen and both legs.

Both men took the witness stand last week to give their version of what happened on May 11, 2013.

That evening Kiener was barbecuing and drinking alcohol with friends in his yard at 2718 Nevada St., according to his testimony. (Later at the hospital, his blood-alcohol level was measured at roughly three times the legal limit.) Around 10 p.m. he and a friend, Todd Buckley, got into a friendly wrestling match.

Chabuk heard noises from his duplex at 2633 Nevada, about 250 feet south of Kiener’s home. He and his fiancée walked outside to see if something was wrong. Chabuk brought a flashlight, a camera phone and a loaded 9 mm Smith & Wesson handgun. He couldn’t tell if the men were roughhousing or if it was a real fight, Chabuk testified. He turned on the camera from a distance. That video was played for the jury.

After 12 seconds Chabuk asks: “What are you guys doing?”

“What are you doing?” a man answers.

Chabuk shined a flashlight on his neighbors. That irritated Kiener and his friends, argued Prosecutor Dave McEachran. After a brief conversation Chabuk realized nothing was wrong, and he turned off the camera. Then, as the encounter was about to end, Kiener thought he saw Chabuk “doing something” to the front end of Buckley’s red Subaru, parked in the gravel in front of the house, Kiener testified.

Sometime in the next minute or so Chabuk turned on the camera again. On the video Kiener is following him at a distance. They climb the stairs of a 90-foot path that leads to Chabuk’s door. Several times Kiener accuses Chabuk of touching “my property” — meaning Buckley’s car. Chabuk tells Kiener he’d better back off.

“I don’t give a (expletive) what you think! I’m not going to touch you. I’m just wondering, why are you touching my property,” Kiener says.

Chabuk denied touching the car about 10 times, he testified. Several denials were recorded on video. Kiener testified that, at the time, he did not believe him.

Moments later Kiener sees something in Chabuk’s hand.

“What,” Kiener says, “are you going to Tase me with that? … I’m not (expletive) harmful, I just want to understand, like, why, why are you touching my property?”

As Chabuk reaches a 90-degree turn in the walkway, a few feet from his front door, Kiener keeps repeating the question. Chabuk denies touching his property, twice, then raises his voice.

“This is my property! You are on private property right now, and I suggest that you leave!” Chabuk tells someone to call 911.

One-and-a-half minutes into the second video, Kiener steps into the light, coming at Chabuk from a distance of perhaps 20 feet, and Chabuk fires one shot. The bullet pierces one of Kiener’s legs, near the knee. Kiener, unfazed, keeps moving forward. Chabuk thought he missed, he testified.

“Back off!” Chabuk shouts.

“(Expletive) you!” Kiener says.

A second shot rings out. This one goes through Kiener’s other leg. He keeps coming. The third round is fired as Kiener’s chest fills the camera frame. The bullet strikes below the belly button. Kiener still does not realize he’s been shot.

“I’m not gonna hurt you, dude,” he tells Chabuk, with no sign of being in pain.

The video ends. On his own power Kiener walked back to the street, to the surprise of many who saw photos of the injuries, including Dr. Gary Goldfogel, who testified at trial for the defense. The doctor said the alcohol likely numbed Kiener’s pain.

Chabuk had a permit to carry a concealed pistol.

Kiener spent a week in the hospital with severe internal injuries. He has filed a civil lawsuit against Chabuk. That case is pending.

Criminal prosecutors charged Chabuk with assault in the first degree. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty on that charge Wednesday, Nov. 25. Jurors found Chabuk guilty, however, of the lesser charge of assault in the second degree.

A sentencing date hasn’t been set.

This story was originally published November 27, 2015 at 6:41 AM with the headline "Bellingham man guilty of assault for shooting neighbor."