SANTA CRUZ, Calif. – The man shot to death by Santa Cruz police after killing two detectives fought losing battles to control his rage and a Peeping Tom obsession, destructive urges that led to his failure in the Army and set him on a path toward the deadly final conflict, his father says.
After more than a decade of warning signs that Jeremy Goulet was the “ticking time bomb” his father described, Goulet flung open his door and fatally shot two detectives sent there to investigate a sexual assault complaint against him.
The quiet beach town was still reeling Wednesday as teary-eyed law enforcement leaders struggled to explain how Goulet, 35, had managed to kill Sgt. Loran Butch Baker and Elizabeth Butler the previous day.
Wednesday night, hundreds of grieving community members gathered for a vigil near the police department, with photos of Baker and Butler sitting on a table surrounded by flowers and candles. Some people wore blue-and-black armbands in solidarity with the police.
Those who knew or were associated with Goulet said a hatred for the justice system had swelled in him since he graduated in 2000 with a degree in criminal justice from San Diego State University. This feeling was fueled by years of run-ins with police and prosecutors after accusations during his military tenure of sex-related crimes, his father, Ronald Goulet, 64, told The Associated Press.
“He had contempt for the cops and hated our justice system, and had been in jail before and swore he’d never go back,” his father said in halting, emotional bursts during an interview Wednesday. “But I didn’t think by any means he would do anything like this.”
The killings prompted police Chief Kevin Vogel to order his force of 92 officers to step down for the day, allowing sheriffs and the highway patrol to take over the city’s protection. “It’s been devastating,” Vogel said Wednesday.
After shooting the two detectives, Goulet stole their guns and jumped into Baker’s car, said Santa Cruz County Sheriff Phil Wowak. But he was boxed in the neighborhood by responding officers so he left the car and headed back toward his house.
A team of law enforcement officers spotted him and ordered him to give up. Instead, he ran. When cornered, he opened fire and was killed in the shootout.
Goulet and his twin brother, Jeffery Goulet, grew up near Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California, where Ronald Goulet was stationed during his 26 years in the military. He said that after his divorce from the boys’ mother, the twins both dealt with anger management issues.
“The brothers used to argue and get in bad fist fights with each other,” the father said. “Both of them had anger management issues, but (Jeremy’s) brother matured and he didn’t.”
During college, Jeremy Goulet served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. His father said Jeremy was arrested then for peeping, a misdemeanor.
“He’s got one problem: peeping in windows,” said his father. “I asked him, `Why don’t you just go to a strip club?”‘
After graduating from San Diego State University in 2000, he landed in the U.S. Army, where he trained as a helicopter pilot. He was moving forward in his career when he again stumbled into legal troubles in the Army and was discharged, his father said.
Goulet moved to Portland, Ore., to be with his twin brother, Jeffery, despite a strained relationship.
Goulet’s father said his son sent a text message to Jeffery Tuesday, saying, “I’m in big trouble, I love you,” the father recalled. “Jeff texted back and Jeremy wouldn’t answer and next thing we know he was shot and killed.”
Goulet, who had served two years in prison in Oregon, was most recently in Santa Cruz County jail Friday on charges of public intoxication. Earlier that evening, a colleague at the coffee shop where he was working filed a complaint with police about inappropriate sexual advances. He was fired the next day, and the detectives had been following up.
In May 2008, he went to trial on charges of peeping on a young woman in Portland as she took a shower in her condo, and for trying to kill her boyfriend.
Goulet was convicted of carrying a gun without a concealed weapon permit and invasion of personal privacy. After violating his probation, he was sentenced to two years in jail.
Following his release, Goulet moved to Berkeley, where until last fall, a neighbor said the twin brothers lived for at least a year in a brown-shingled house on a quiet street.
Alicia Morrison said she and her husband lived in the apartment just below the brothers and called the police in September when they got into a violent fight.
“I didn’t think it was an everyday fight. It sounded like one of them was going to get killed,” she said.
Jeremy left before the police arrived on that occasion.
Neighbors had called police for the same reason before, Morrison said.
“Every time the police were called, they (the brothers) acted like it was no big deal,” she said.
Some acquaintances in Santa Cruz said Goulet made a good first impression, but were alarmed at the recent accusations.
“He seemed like a totally normal guy, till last week when he had this encounter with this woman, which was totally weird,” Courtney Antrim-Web, a chocolatier who worked at the shop next to the coffee place.
The elder Goulet said his son had gone to California for a fresh start after his legal troubles and incarceration in Portland.
“He wanted to restart his life. He was really upset at the system … he already had anger management issues, so everything was coming to a head,” Ronald Goulet said. “He swore up and down that he would not spend one more day in jail.”
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