By: Shawn Vincent

Gregory Timm shot Harold Powell once in the chest on Seattle’s Alaskan Way waterfront promenade late in the afternoon of July 31, 2025. Powell, 68, a Navy veteran who uses a wheelchair, had played music for donations on the waterfront since 1995. His wheelchair carried an American flag, Navy memorabilia, and a faux license plate that read “Navy Veteran.” Timm, 32, decided the display was a lie.

Powell testified that Timm started yelling, “Hey everybody, there’s a fake a** vet.” According to prosecutors, Timm “demanded the victim provide identification to prove his military status. As the victim was taking out his wallet, the defendant removed a military patch from the victim’s belongings.” Bystander video captures Timm shouting, “Show me your ID!”

“I felt violated,” Powell later testified. “I grabbed my knife just in case this guy was going to attack me because he took something from me.” Investigators said Timm “continued to demand the victim’s military ID, and the victim took out an Airsoft gun from a holster.” Charging documents say that “before the victim could even do anything with it, the defendant pulled out his handgun, pointed it at the victim, and shot him point blank in the chest.” The police report describes the moment: “Timm extends his right arm, takes a couple of steps back, and fires one round from the pistol.” The bullet cracked Powell’s ribs but missed his vital organs. He survived.

Timm stayed at the scene. From the back of a patrol car, he said, “I’m in shock a little bit, but I’m alright. I just shot somebody because he pulled a gun on me, and I’m in the back of a cop car.” Powell was, in fact, a Navy veteran. His service ended in 1991 when he was struck by a drunk driver.

Timm faced a knife and then what appeared to be a holstered gun, and nothing in the record suggests he could have known the gun was a CO2 powered replica pistol. So how did he end up in prison? The prosecution’s answer was that Timm started the fight. A spokesperson for the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office told reporters, “A key in self-defense cases is who the first aggressor is. If you provoke an attack upon yourself, you lose the right to claim self-defense.”

At trial, prosecutors told jurors that Timm “picked a fight that he knew he could win . . . in which he had every advantage over a man in a wheelchair.” The defense argued that obnoxious behavior doesn’t forfeit the right to self-defense: “Even if (Timm) was being loud and acting obnoxiously like an a–hole, he still has a right to self-defense.” Washington law supports part of that argument. The state Supreme Court has held that “words alone do not constitute sufficient provocation,” and that “a ‘victim’ faced with only words is not entitled to respond with force.”

On March 19, 2026, jurors rejected the first-degree assault charge and convicted Timm of the lesser-included offense of second-degree assault, along with third-degree theft for taking the patch. On April 24, 2026, he was sentenced to 42 months in prison—six months for the assault plus a mandatory 36-month firearm enhancement—followed by 18 months of community custody. At sentencing, the judge told him, “Mr. Timm, this was a situation, a completely senseless act entirely of your own making. Mr Powell was in no way an aggressor or a willing participant.”

 

Lessons for Armed Defenders

Don’t start needless arguments (Lesson #12)

Powell was playing music on a public promenade, and nothing he did required a response from Timm. Timm chose to challenge a stranger’s military service in front of a crowd, and he was wrong about it. Accusing Powell of stolen valor was not illegal, and Washington law holds that words alone cannot make someone an aggressor. Still, the accusation started the sequence that ended with a 68-year-old man in a wheelchair shot in the chest. An armed defender who confronts a stranger over a perceived social infraction rarely knows the full story, and any argument can escalate into a use-of-force incident. For Timm, a needless argument became a felony conviction and three and a half years in prison.

 

Don’t be the initial aggressor (Lesson #10)

Taking the patch moved the confrontation from words to action. Prosecutors said Timm took the patch while Powell reached for his wallet, and the jury convicted him of theft for it. Washington’s pattern jury instruction says that no person may, “by any intentional act reasonably likely to provoke a belligerent response, create a necessity for acting in self-defense.” The public record does not show whether Timm’s jury received that instruction, but prosecutors described him as the initial aggressor from the day he was charged, and Powell testified that he grabbed his knife because Timm had taken something from him. Putting hands on another person’s property in the middle of an argument can give prosecutors the act they need to defeat a self-defense claim.

 

Don’t stand your ground (Lesson #15)

When Powell produced the knife, Timm had an easy way out. He was an able-bodied 32-year-old, and Powell was 68 and seated in a wheelchair. Washington does not require a defender to retreat, but Timm could have walked away with almost no risk to himself. Instead, investigators said, he kept demanding Powell’s military ID. By staying to press his demand after Powell armed himself, Timm remained in the confrontation until it reached the point where he fired. The same physical disparity that made leaving easy became the centerpiece of the prosecution’s case against him.

 

The belief of imminent harm or death must be reasonable (Lesson #5)

A reasonable person who sees a stranger draw what looks like a real handgun may well fear for their life. Jurors, however, judge that belief in the totality of the circumstances, including the patch Timm took, the knife he stayed to face, and the timing of his shot. Prosecutors said Timm fired before Powell could do anything with the airsoft gun, and Powell testified, “I didn’t point it at him at all.” The jury convicted Timm of second-degree assault rather than first-degree assault, which requires intent to inflict great bodily harm. The verdict indicates the jury rejected his self-defense claim, even if jurors weren’t convinced he meant to cause great bodily harm. A defender whose own conduct created the danger will have a harder time persuading a jury that the fear it produced was reasonable, and Timm’s failure to do so cost him 42 months in prison.