At around 5:25 p.m. June 25, King County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to the 32600 block of NE 32nd Street at Remlinger Farms in Carnation regarding a car-versus-pedestrian hit-and-run.

While the sheriff’s office would not confirm the victim’s name, a statement posted on Facebook by Remlinger Farms owner Nathan Sherfey states that he was hit with a car on Tolt Hill Road by a driver who intentionally blocked concert traffic into the farm.

According to the statement, Sherfey initally attempted to de-escalate the situation by speaking with the driver but was “met with aggressive behavior and verbal attacks concerning Remlinger Farms concerts.”

“As [Sherfey] attempted to call and notify the police to handle the situation, the driver proceeded to attempt an alleged vehicular assault on [Sherfey] and hit him with his car, knocking him off the road and down an embankment,” the statement reads. “The driver then fled the scene.”

The extent of Sherfey’s injuries is unknown, but according to his statement, he is recovering at home.

As the criminal investigation is ongoing and deputies continue to search for the vehicle, the King County Sheriff’s Office is not releasing any other information at this time.

The Valley Record will update this story when more information is available.

Statement from Sherfey on Facebook:

We wanted to update the community in regard to the incident that occurred yesterday afternoon during our traffic control for the concert venue.

Unfortunately, due to the continued inflammatory and slanderous comments by a small group of people in our community on social media, news outlets, etc. This has finally boiled over into inciting a local community member to take action into his own hands. This citizen of our community decided to use their vehicle to block traffic on Tolt Hill Road at approximately 5:30 yesterday afternoon. When confronted by traffic control they refused to move their vehicle. Our manager Nathan Sherfey went to de-escalate the situation by speaking with the driver. Unfortunately, he was met with aggressive behavior and verbal attacks concerning Remlinger Farms concerts. As he attempted to call and notify the police to handle the situation, the driver then proceeded to attempt alleged vehicular assault on Nathan and hit him with his car, knocking him off the road and down an embankment. The driver then fled the scene. The details of the vehicle and the driver were captured by the traffic control workers as well as surrounding drivers. Nathan was taken to a local hospital to receive medical care and while sustaining injuries, he is currently home recovering at this time.

Remlinger Farms has been quietly working hard to help our local community navigate through this new exciting adventure with the concert venue.

Unfortunately, all of the hate speech and attacks on our business and family have caused a community member to act irrationally injuring Nathan Sherfey.

All of this could have been avoided without the misinformation being spread by the small vocal group of 4 individuals and others in the community! Currently the police are involved and we will be prosecuting this to the fullest extent of the law. In addition we have had no choice, but to incorporate our lawyers to help us move forward and address the rising issues that they have created.

This incident is an opportunity for everyone on social media to think twice about making exaggerated posts and false statements. As we all know, false words, whether written or spoken, can have serious consequences.

At Remlinger Farms we will continue to support our community to the best of our ability. We also want to thank everyone who supported us through everything that has occurred. We look forward to continuing to serve and help the community in the extended future. We hope that this can put an end to any additional incidents moving forward and we are wishing Nathan a speedy recovery. Thank you!

A portion of the response from the Carnation Community Alliance:

Dear Remlinger Farms Family and Staff,

We were shocked and saddened to hear of the horrific incident involving Nathan and the person who decided to take their frustrations out in such an abhorrent way. We support your efforts to seek justice and hope this individual is prosecuted. Most importantly, we sincerely hope that Nathan makes a full recovery.

Carnation Community Alliance (CCA) would never encourage members of the public to take matters into their own hands and cause harm to Remlinger and its employees. We condemn this violence and are horrified by what this individual did. This behavior is completely unacceptable in our community. We do not condone or encourage violence in any way, shape, or form. One hopes that people can act from a place of love and integrity and that differences of opinion can be resolved peacefully.

At the same time, it is improper for Remlinger to allege slander by CCA, when its only efforts are to see that Remlinger and STG abide by County laws in the same manner required for all other rural area property owners. By alleging slander Remlinger is only raising the temperature in the community for both those opposing and in favor of this new outdoor concert venue.

We try to conduct ourselves in highly ethical and diplomatic ways as we simply share information that is fact based and related to public health, welfare, safety, and the environmental protection of the Snoqualmie Valley. We welcome the expression of other points of view and are happy to have a conversation with anyone about any aspect of our research and actions. We are simply trying to inform the public about the real, potential, and active impacts that this concert venue is having on Carnation and its neighborhoods, wildlife, and environment.