By Dee Camp
Chronicle staff

     OKANOGAN - Police nationwide are on the lookout for Kino Michael Gomez, the man accused of killing a Black Diamond resident July 17 in Twisp.
     A nationwide, no-bail arrest warrant was issued Sept. 14 for Gomez, 51, after he notified his family he was headed on a one-way trip to the mountains.
     He is accused of first-degree murder in the shooting death of music producer Tom Pfaeffle, 49. Pfaeffle was shot at a Twisp motel after he apparently tried to enter Gomez's room, thinking it was his own.
     Prosecutor Karl F. Sloan asked Okanogan County Superior Court Judge Jack Burchard to issue the warrant after receiving a copy of Gomez's letter from defense attorney Michael Haas. Under attorneys' professional rules of conduct, Haas was obligated to notify Sloan of the situation.
     Gomez posted $100,000 bail and was released July 20. Conditions of his release were that he live in Seattle, not violate any laws and not possess any dangerous weapon or firearm, Sloan wrote in his motion for the warrant.
     Sloan said he was contacted Sept. 15 by Haas, who reported the letter to Gomez's family and his plans to commit suicide.
     Haas "felt the threats by the defendant were credible," Sloan said in the motion.
     The warrant allows law enforcement to execute the arrest warrant without first announcing their office and purpose, "thereby allowing them to immediately enter a dwelling, building or enclosure where the defendant is believed to be present," the motion said.
     "The state believes that due to specific exigent circumstances, including the defendant's admission that he is armed with a primary and backup weapon, his threats toward anyone who intervenes and his agitated state of mind, that requiring the officers to first knock and announce their presence would place them in unreasonable danger of injury or death," Sloan wrote.
     "By the time you read this letter, I will be gone," Gomez wrote in his letter, which was titled "Goodbye."
     "I have taken a one-way trip to the mountains. It is where I belong," he continued. "Over the years, I have contemplated the type of exit I will make, barring death by natural causes. This is the one I chose then, it is what I now plan to do."
     He said he took two guns with him and that he would rather be dead than lose his freedom or gun rights.
     "It will be quick and painless," he said. "Let no one get in my way - I will not be very kind. Despair has now changed to anger."
     Gomez said it was a good time for him to go.
     "I still have my health. By my standards, I have lived an exceptionally good life. I am actually amazed that I have lasted this long."
     Gomez said he gave up to police the night of the shooting because he thought he was in the right.
     "It was a big mistake," he said, and thanked his family for getting him "out of that jam."
     He told his family that "I regret that I had caused you the embarrassment, the financial burden I cannot possibly repay and the grief. I am sorry. You all take care."