Lake Stevens home-invasion robbery may be tied to fatal Pierce County shooting
Published 10:28 am Thursday, April 29, 2010
LAKE STEVENS – Police are investigating whether a brazen home-invasion robbery in Lake Stevens Sunday night may be connected to a similar holdup in Pierce County Wednesday night where a 43-year-old man was fatally shot.
In both incidents, families posted expensive items on Craigslist, officials said. People who said they were responding to the ads came to the homes instead intent on robbing the sellers.
The Lake Stevens incident occurred Sunday just after 10 p.m., Lake Stevens Police Chief Randy Celori said today.
A family who lives in the 1200 block of 84th Avenue SE was trying to sell a flat-screen TV, the chief said. Two men arrived at the home and threatened the family with firearms, then tied up the family. Additional suspects entered the home.
In less than 10 minutes, the suspects ransacked the home, stealing electronics, jewelry, and Iraqi currency worth several thousand dollars if exchanged, Celori said.
Detectives in Lake Stevens are working with Pierce County sheriff’s officials to see if there’s a connection to the incident Wednesday near Edgewood.
In Pierce County, sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said several armed men burst into a home after showing up under the pretext of buying a ring.
A man in the home was killed in a fight that followed, Troyer said. A 14-year-old boy who lived in the home was struck in the head during the fight and was hospitalized. A woman and another boy were also in the home.
The assailants fled.
The suspects in Pierce County “flashed cash” at the door of the home and told the occupants they were there in response to an Internet ad about an expensive ring for sale.
The Lake Stevens suspects are described as 18- to 24-year-old men with thin builds. One is black, about 5-foot-6-inches tall, about 160 pounds, with a goatee. The other is mixed-race, likely black and Asian, about 5-foot-10-inches tall, about 170 pounds, with a tattoo on his neck.
See police sketches of suspects in a PDF press release.
Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or Lake Stevens Police detective Dennis Irwin at 425-334-9537.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
