Man Shoots, Kills Himself at Hearing Over Unpaid Taxes

SEATTLE —  A federal tax protester, who owed the government $6,300, shot and killed himself Tuesday in U.S. Tax Court after a judge called his appeal frivolous and threatened additional penalties if he did not drop his case.

Internal Revenue Service spokeswoman Pat Leigh said Everett Lasher, a Puyallup resident in his late 50s, shot himself with a handgun during his tax hearing at the Federal Building before Judge Julian I. Jacob.

“He stated he did not consider himself to be a taxpayer under the Constitution of the United States,” Leigh said. “He felt the IRS had no power to tax him.”