Two cars and a dog were shot in two separate but related incidents outside a North Whidbey home Monday morning.

Residents of a home on Valley Road, which is near Crescent Harbor Elementary School, reported that 22-year-old Oak Harbor resident Jacob Whitaker shot two parked cars with an assault rifle 13 times and then sped away, according to Island County Sheriff Mark Brown.

Whitaker was arrested after a state trooper pulled him over on Highway 20 at Ault Field about 40 minutes later.

At about the same time, a pit bull attacked a deputy at the Valley Road residence.

Brown said the deputy saw the angry dog come out of the house and run down the stairs at him. He yelled and backed up, but the dog was undeterred and leaped at him from the stairs. The deputy shot three rounds, hitting the dog.

Brown said the dog didn’t die right away, but a veterinarian later put him down because of a severe spinal injury.

As for Whitaker, Sgt. Jason Longoria with the State Patrol said troopers didn’t find any guns inside the suspect’s Mitsubishi sedan.

But Det. Shawn Warwick with the Sheriff’s Office said investigators later recovered an assault rifle and two handguns when they executed a search warrant at the home of Whitaker’s mother. The SKS rifle was similar to the one described by the victim, detectives said.

“We also checked and determined that it was loaded with the same style ammunition we recovered at the crime scene,” said Det. Ed Wallace.

Warwick said both cars were rendered inoperable by the shooting.

Whitaker was previously convicted in June of 2005 of second-degree assault and felon in possession of a handgun for pistol-whipping a man at a New Year’s Eve party. The Washington Appeals Court later reversed the conviction because appeals court judges ruled that his attorney was ineffective.

On Jan. 26 of this year, Whitaker pleaded guilty to assault in the third degree and the unlawful possession of a firearm. He was freed from jail because he had already served his sentence by that point.

Whitaker made his preliminary appearance in Island County Superior Court Tuesday. Judge Alan Hancock found that there was probable cause to hold Whitaker on suspicion of first-degee malicious mischief and three counts of unlawful possession of a firearm. The judge set his bail at $250,000.

You can reach News-Times reporter Jessie Stensland at jstensland@whidbeynewstimes.com or call 675-6611.