Officers recovered a gun and arrested the assailant after responding to a shooting just after midnight in the Rainier Valley.
At about 12:30 AM numerous witnesses began calling 911, reporting that they had just seen a shooting near Rainier Ave South and South Plum Street. Officers swarmed the area and located the suspect as well as a victim with a gunshot wound to his back.
Medics treated the 21-year-old man for the gunshot wound and transported him to Harborview Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries.
Officers spoke with the involved persons as well as witnesses to establish an outline of what occurred.
The suspect was reportedly asleep in his van, when the victim broke into his car. Startled, the suspect grabbed his gun and yelled at the victim who then fled the scene of the car prowl. The suspect chased the car-prowler and began firing his gun at the fleeing man. As the car-prowler got into the passenger side of a waiting car, the suspect continued to fire his gun at the car-prowler, his getaway driver and the car they were in. Both men ditched the car as officers were arriving.
Police recovered the .357 magnum revolver used in the shooting and also impounded the bullet riddled getaway car for evidence.
Swedish Hospital staff called police to report a 21-year-old man with a non-life threatening gunshot wound to his leg had been dropped off. Officers later identified this man as the car-prowler and second shooting victim.
Officers arrested the 63-year-old gunman, after determining that his shooting surpassed the scope of self-defense. Officers concluded, even after the car-prowl suspect and his driver no longer constituted a threat to either the man’s property or his safety, he continued to shoot at the two men as they were fleeing the scene.
Officers booked the 63-year-old man into King County Jail on investigation of assault.
