Man Accused of Breaking Into Downtown Centralia Building With Dagger Arrested and Charged 

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When the sole renter on the second-story of a building in the 100 block of South Tower Avenue heard someone outside her apartment “jiggling doors” at about 1:40 a.m. on Saturday, she called the police. 

Officers with the Centralia Police Department soon found that the locked exterior door to the building had been forced open. They walked up the stairs, announced their presence and asked anyone there to make themselves known. 

They then reportedly saw a man walk around a corner with “a large knife on his person.” He reportedly “tossed (the knife) on the floor” and followed officers’ orders to get onto his stomach. 

The man, Damion R. Wilson, 22, of Centralia, was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail early Saturday morning. 

In addition to the knife, identified by law enforcement as “a double-bladed dagger with metal knuckles for a handle,” officers reportedly found three keys on Wilson’s person upon his arrest. Wilson allegedly claimed “he got the three keys out of a lockbox down the stairs,” according to documents filed in Lewis County Superior Court. 



Officers took pictures of the keys and gave them to the reporting party to return to the building’s owner. 

Wilson was charged Monday morning with one count of first-degree burglary — a class A felony with a maximum penalty of life in prison — as well as one count each of third-degree theft and dangerous weapon violation, both gross misdemeanors. 

“He (Wilson) was quite adamant in denying all allegations,” said defense attorney Rachael Tiller during Wilson’s preliminary hearing in Lewis County Superior Court on Monday. 

During that hearing, a judge ruled to uphold the $20,000 bail set for Wilson over the weekend and scheduled Wilson’s arraignment hearing for Thursday, Jan. 12.