EVERETT — The 14-year-old girl who was shot along with her brother on Thursday night in a case of mistaken gang affiliation has been released from the hospital.
Her 17-year-old brother was upgraded to stable condition at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle on Saturday morning.
The suspect, 17, was arrested early Friday morning after a four-hour standoff with police. He was evaluated for minor injuries after a SWAT team used what was described as an aerosol irritant to force him out of a south Everett condominium in the 1500 block of 115th Street SW.
The former Mariner High School student allegedly admitted to detectives he was dressed in red to represent his gang affiliation, Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Shari Ireton said.
The suspect allegedly confronted the boy about wearing blue shorts — the color favored by a rival gang. He also confronted the boy about being Hispanic, Ireton said.
Neither the boy and his sister nor another girl who accompanied them have any association with gangs, nor did they know the suspect prior to the shooting, Ireton said.
When the boy would not respond to the suspect’s accusations of “repping blue,” a gang term, the suspect shot him, Ireton said.
The shooting was reported about 6:30 p.m. in the 11700 block of Meridian Avenue S. It occurred on a field on school property that separates Discovery Elementary and Voyager Middle schools.
The handgun believed used in the assault was recovered from the home where the suspect was located. It was confirmed to have been stolen, a case under investigation by Everett police.
The boy who was shot is a student at Mariner High School; the girl is a former student at Voyager Middle School. It wasn’t immediately clear where she is enrolled this year.
The suspect was booked into the Denney Juvenile Justice Center in north Everett for investigation of two counts of first-degree assault with a firearm.
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