SPANAWAY, Wash. – Authorities describe the man who shot two Pierce County sheriff's deputies as a man who terrorized his own family through violence and weapons – weapons he was legally allowed to own.
In the fall of 2005 Crable, his daughter, his mother and his brother moved into a two-story house in Spanaway. Neighbors say, from day one, the house was the scene of chaos.
"You would see a lot of yelling. A lot of fighting. You would see fists flying. You would see beer bottles flying. You would see screaming," said neighbor Brooke Dodson.
Court documents reveal the Crables filed multiple restraining orders against each other. On May 18, 2009, mother Patsy Jo Crable asked for a restraining order against David. Patsy wrote, "I am afraid in my own home with him because of the many guns he owns."
In June 2009, David pleaded guilty to malicious mischief and the unlawful carrying of weapons.
According to court papers, David threatened his then 15-year-old daughter by slapping the back of the head, shoved her face up against the wall and by holding a kitchen knife and pointed it at her several times.
Public Defender Jason Johnson represented Crable in his malicious mischief case. Johnson says that Crable "fell through the cracks" of the system. He said David needed mental health treatment that he could not afford, but he never predicted the violence that would occur months later.
"You're never really going to know what is going to happen with a case later on as far a person's capacity for violence is and what is going to happen in the future," said attorney Jason Johnson.
Bobby Brown and his girlfriend remember the day they moved next door to Crable.
"When I pulled up in the trailer, his brother's tires, all four of them, were slashed. They had him... we were loading stuff in the house because that's when I was moving in... then they had him, guns drawn, we were looking through the side window, they had guns drawn and he was in the back on the ground," he said.
A few weeks after that, Crable was living in the house again, and everything seemed to smooth out.
"He would be outside and he would help me fix my truck, I'd help him and he'd look at it. Seemed like a real nice guy," said Brown.
At one point, Crable asked his neighbor for a favor.
"Someone asks me to watch their house, I'll watch their house. But I thought it was a little weird that he asked me to, 'Here's a pistol. Watch my house,'" said Brown.
"Then he came back two weeks later and I returned the pistol to him - unloaded - and said, 'Here, it's unloaded,' and he said, 'No, that's not how you do it.' Slammed it in, and then cocked one in the chamber. He goes, 'You got to keep it.' And then he puts it on his hip."
Until ballistics test results are in, it's unclear if that gun is the same one used in Monday night's shootings.
Despite his violent past, Crable was still able to own guns. According to the Pierce County Sheriff's Office, he was not a convicted felon and could possess weapons.
In the numerous restraining orders, his family never asked for his guns to be taken away.
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