Pierce County sheriff’s detectives are trying to learn who killed a medical marijuana patient who had been growing 150 pot plants on his Orting-area property and been the victim of attempted robberies in the past.

“We’ve been working on the case, and it just continues to get more complicated,” sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said Monday.

Detectives suspect Michael S. Howard, 38, might have been targeted in a robbery, but they had no suspects in his slaying. He died Saturday after being struck in the head, possibly by a crowbar, four days earlier.

Howard suffered back injuries in a couple of accidents years ago and used medical marijuana to deal with the pain, said his stepfather, Michael Atkins.

He was a patient of CannaCare, a Seattle-area organization that provides patients with marijuana plants and advice about Washington’s law, said Steve Sarich, the group’s director.

Howard also posted on CannaCare’s online forum and volunteered his time for the advocacy group.

Investigators had nothing connecting Howard’s death to a robbery that ended early Monday in a shootout at Sarich’s Kirkland home. King County sheriff’s investigators believe the home might have been targeted because of a medical marijuana grow operation inside.

Sarich was wounded in the face and leg by shotgun pellets during the robbery. He shot one of the four robbers, who was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with life-threatening injuries.

Before the shooting, Sarich raised concerns about robberies of marijuana patients. He said patients are reluctant to report the robberies because law enforcement officers ignore the crimes and instead focus on the patients for having pot.

“What happened to Mike Howard could happen to me or any other patient in Washington as long as we can’t trust the police to do their jobs,” Sarich wrote in a letter Sunday to state Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle. “This is beyond disturbing.”

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