About the Archive
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.
A dozen off-duty soldiers from Fort Lewis engaged in a 30-minute gun battle last weekend against a group of alleged drug dealers.
Hundreds of rounds from handguns, shotguns and semiautomatic weapons were fired, witnesses said, but no one was hurt. When the police arrived in the drug-ridden neighborhood, they arrested two young men suspected of being crack dealers and took the soldiers' weapons, which were privately owned.
The gunfight involved members of the Army Rangers, an elite force of light infantry, and it happened Saturday night outside the home of one of them, Sgt. Bill Foulk. The next day, scuffles broke out among several Ranger supporters and opponents, who said they were being falsely accused of selling drugs. Again no serious injuries were reported. Filming Leads to Threats
Aligned against the Rangers in the shooting were 15 to 20 people described by the police as members of a gang, the Hilltop Crips, which has been implicated in drug dealing.
Continue reading the main story
Sergeant Foulk, 32 years old, said the gang members had become upset earlier Saturday that he was filming, from his second-floor window, the comings and goings at a yellow bungalow that has a reputation of being a crack house. He said they had threatened him and he had called fellow Rangers for help. The shooting began soon after the soldiers arrived.
Police Chief Ray Fjetland said the incident could have been avoided if residents had called the police. But Sergeant Foulk said the police were routinely too slow to react.
Army officials said they would wait for completion of the investigation by the police before deciding if disciplinary action was warranted.
But Maj. Clyde Newman, second-in-command of the soldiers' unit, the Second Ranger Battalion, said: ''From everything I am told by the city police, the Rangers were right. They were having a party, and they were attacked.''
Continue reading the main story
Residents of the bungalow said they had not fired any shots at the sergeant's house. They also denied participating in drug deals, although they said drug activity often occurred in front of the house.
Sergeant Foulk said he and his neighbors saw drug deals at the house day and night. ''I bought this place two years ago for $10,000 after it was abandoned,'' he said. ''We're fixing it up, and as far as I'm concerned, the neighborhood is going to be restored to a decent place to live.''
The police identified the two men arrested after the shooting as Frankie Lee Strickland, 20, held for investigation of assault, and Daniel Lynn Vaughn, 21, held for investigation of unlawful use of a weapon. The police also said they had confiscated from the Rangers two semiautomatic rifles, one 12-gauge shotgun, eight semiautomatic handguns and one revolver.
