CHINOOK — Quick thinking by a Pacific County Sheriff’s Office deputy prevented a man from harming himself or others with a “partially loaded” semi-automatic rifle.

The man called dispatch multiple times over three days threatening to harm himself or a neighbor. The incident unfolded on Jan. 21 at 8:29 p.m. on the 100 Block of U.S. Highway 101 in Chinook.

According to court records, Samuel R. Baxter, 54, of Chinook, called dispatch on Jan. 19, 20, and 21, stating he planned to harm himself or was “thinking about shooting his neighbor.” A deputy from the sheriff’s office responded multiple times but could not find Baxter until the call on Jan. 21.

“I arrived on scene and located Baxter seated upright in a bed [within a trailer],” the responding deputy wrote in the arrest probable cause affidavit. “Baxter invited me in, and I entered the trailer and immediately observed an AR-15 leaned up against the wall of the trailer next to the bed within arms reach of Baxter.”

The quick-thinking deputy was able to get control of the rifle, remove it from Baxter’s reach, and disarm it. He found that the rifle had an inserted magazine and was ‘partially loaded.” Baxter was placed into the deputy’s patrol vehicle and transported to Ocean Beach Hospital for mental health help.

According to the arrest probable cause affidavit, while transporting Baxter, the deputy learned that the man was a convicted felon due to a 2019 second-degree assault conviction out of Skamania County. The conviction meant Baxter could not legally be in possession of a firearm.

During his calls to dispatch, he told dispatchers he was holding a military-style “Colt M-4,” which is a version of the standard issued rifle to United State soldiers and was similar to what “he carried with him in the Middle East.”

Baxter’s military background was not specified in court records. He is being held in the Pacific County Jail on $75,000 bail. He will appear for his formal arraignment on Jan. 27, and indigent defense attorney Justin Kover was appointed to represent him.