EVERETT — A shooting near Monroe last week happened during an armed robbery at a chop shop operation, according to police reports.
The victim, a 38-year-old Monroe man, was found unresponsive in a doorway Sept. 18 along Florence Acres Road. He had been shot in the groin. He also had a fractured skull from being struck repeatedly with a baseball bat, police wrote.
The man remains unconscious and on life support.
Two suspects were arrested in Mountlake Terrace on Wednesday morning. Michael R. Bruce, 49, of Woodinville, and Troy A. Russ, 33, of Mountlake Terrace, were being held Thursday for investigation of robbery, assault and burglary. Three other suspects remain at large, according to the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office.
The victim was living at the Florence Acres Road location, which detectives described as “some kind of illegal operation in which vehicles are stolen, parts taken and the hulks abandoned on the property.”
The victim was at home when someone started banging on the door, witnesses told police. When he opened the door, three men barged in with bandanas or masks covering their faces. They stole backpacks and a cellphone from witnesses, who did not see the assault happen but heard the noises.
The men fled, one of them in the victim’s truck, reports show. They fired a shot at one of the witnesses while fleeing.
Russ reportedly told detectives that the assault was prompted by a dispute over stolen property. It was supposed to be “a show of force to settle the issue,” detectives wrote.
Both Bruce and Russ denied being the shooter or the person who struck the victim with the bat.
Bruce already is awaiting a December trial in a burglary case out of Everett. He was charged in March in connection with a string of break-ins at a home in the Riverside neighborhood. The burglary victim lost hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of property.
In January at the Everett house, Bruce allegedly told an undercover police officer his name was “Fisherman Mike.”
Bruce has three felony convictions, all from 2014, for drugs, possessing stolen property and identity theft. He also has more than a dozen misdemeanors going back to 1986.
On Wednesday, the sheriff’s office reported that one of the suspects being sought in the Florence Acres case is believed to be driving a cream-colored 1991 Buick Regal. He was described as white and 6-foot-3, with brown hair and brown eyes. He is believed to be armed. Anyone with information is asked to call 911.
According to the paperwork filed this week, “the active investigation is continuing with other arrests and information pending.”
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.
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