King County prosecutors say a 33-year-old Spanaway, Pierce County, woman pointed a gun at a gas station employee in Bellevue on Thursday after refusing to wear a mask inside the business.
Angela Nommensen was arrested and booked into the King County Jail, and though prosecutors had asked that she be held on $75,000 bail, a judge ordered her release at her first court appearance, according to court records and a prosecutor’s spokesman. She was charged Tuesday with felony harassment, accused of threatening to kill the gas station employee, and a summons was issued for her to appear at her Feb. 14 arraignment, court records show.
Court records do not yet indicate if she has an attorney.
State business license information shows Nommensen is the co-owner of Liber Construction in Spanaway, and the business address listed for the company is the same as Nommensen’s last known address included in charging documents.
Just before 11 p.m. Thursday, Nommensen called 911 and told a dispatcher that a gas station employee had pushed her out of the store and wouldn’t print out a receipt because she refused to wear a mask inside the business, charging papers say. She said she needed the receipt in order to be reimbursed for her gas purchase by her employer, according to the charges.
Bellevue police officers responded to an AM/PM convenience store and Arco gas station in the 13900 block of Northeast 20th Street, where they interviewed Nommensen and the employee and viewed two videos Nommensen shot on her cellphone as well as footage from the store’s security cameras, the charges say.
The employee told officers Nommensen refused to put on a mask and refused to leave the store so he eventually grabbed her shoulder and physically escorted her out. After walking back into the store, the employee turned and saw Nommensen draw a firearm and point it at him through the store’s glass door, according to the charges.
Nommensen, who showed officers her driver’s license and concealed pistol license, claimed she couldn’t wear a mask due to some unnamed medical condition and that the employee had attacked her and grabbed her neck while pushing her from the store, the charges say. Police say Nommensen told them she was scared of the clerk because he is a man and is physically bigger than she is, according to the charges.
The store’s video footage showed the two arguing before the employee grabbed Nommensen’s jacket and pulled her to the door; he let go as soon as she was outside and she appeared to hit him several times with her right hand, say the charges. After the employee was back inside the store, the footage captured Nommensen drawing her gun and pointing it at him.
Officers explained to Nommensen that the employee was allowed to use reasonable force to physically remove her from a private business, the charges say. Police also determined Nommensen’s use of her firearm was not warranted or justified, according to the charges.