On February 17, 2026 at approximately 10 p.m., a Klickitat County Deputy returned home from an outing with his wife and young children. They noticed a strong odor of gasoline. While trying to determine where the smell was coming from their barn erupted in flames and dispatch was called.
KCSO Deputies and the fire department arrived shortly thereafter and the flames were extinguished. The Klickitat County K9 team arrived and while walking around the barn, K9 Zeus alerted to a track. K9 Zeus followed the scent directly to the neighbor’s house. Contact was attempted but despite seeing someone inside the residence, that person did not come to the door. Arrangements were made for our Deputy and his family to stay in a motel since their home was now an active crime scene.
Arson investigators were called in and collected evidence. Our local Washington State Patrol offered to call WSP Detectives to help with the investigation. That assistance was accepted and two detectives from WSP started their investigation alongside the Arson investigation team. Based on probable cause, the WSP Detectives wrote a search warrant for the neighbor’s property and had it signed by a local judge. A plan was in motion for WSP SWAT to execute the search warrant on the neighbor’s residence to search for evidence of arson. Despite numerous attempts, the permission to execute that search warrant was not granted by upper level, not local, WSP supervisors.
At the direction of Klickitat County Sheriff Bob Songer, all available Deputies, including the KCSO Warrant Service Team, were called into service on February 19th to serve the warrant and collect any evidence found. After an operations and safety briefing, Klickitat County Deputies served the search warrant at 6 Lyle-Snowden Road, Lyle WA.
During the clearing of the buildings on the property a pickup truck came from the back of the property, driving toward deputies at the main house. Deputies gave the driver commands to stop. The vehicle came to a brief stop and a female and a baby attempted to exit the passenger side of the vehicle but the driver, 35-year-old Kiva Dobson, hit the gas in an attempt to flee. The truck door swung open as Mr. Dobson turned a corner quickly and the female with the baby almost fell out of the truck. Despite multiple commands to stop, the Dobson increased speed. At the end of this driveway were two (2) more Deputies with their vehicle blocking the exit. One Deputy had to run out of the way of the truck to avoid being hit. The vehicle came to a stop and then ran into the front of the patrol car. The female exited with the baby, and was cooperative. Mr. Dobson would not obey commands from the Deputies. He exited out the passenger side, put his hands in the air and said “shoot me!” multiple times. The two (2) deputies told Mr. Dobson he was under arrest, he resisted and a struggle ensued. Additional Deputies arrived and Dobson was taken into custody. Two Deputies received injuries during the struggle, one a sprained wrist and the other a compression fracture to the spine. Both, we hope, will make a full recovery.
Mr. Dobson was transported to the Klickitat County Jail. His charges include Arson in the 1st degree, Residential Burglary and Reckless Burning in the 1st degree.
I want to thank our local Washington State Patrol Troopers, their Detectives, the Arson investigation team from Q Global Fire Investigators, the Firefighters from Lyle Fire, KCSO Detectives, Supervisors and Patrol Deputies, the Drone Team from Klickitat County Department of Emergency Management, Portland Fire and Rescue, the many volunteer Posse Members who helped secure the property night and day, on very short notice, until the family could return to their home.