Arrest made in 2020 homicide of Edmonds 7-Eleven clerk

EDMONDS — An Auburn woman has been arrested in connection with the February 2020 fatal shooting of a 7-Eleven clerk in Edmonds.

The morning of Feb. 21 that year, a person shot and killed employee Nagendiram Kandasamy at the store at 8101 238th St. SW. He was 64.

Security footage showed a man, described as possibly in his 20s, run into the store, jump on the counter and point a handgun — likely at the clerk, who was out of view. To defend himself, Kandasamy held up the stool he was sitting on. He also tried to swing it at the man. The man was there for about 20 seconds, surveillance video reportedly shows. He didn’t try to take anything, an Edmonds detective’s report notes.

A customer later found Kandasamy bleeding and unresponsive on the floor. The Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office determined Kandasamy was shot once. Police believe the shooter used a semiautomatic pistol.

A witness saw a man run to a white car that quickly drove away, according to the report. Police from across the area searched for suspects but couldn’t find anyone.

The 26-year-old woman was booked into the Snohomish County Jail on Wednesday night for investigation of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree robbery. Auburn police arrested her during a traffic stop, according to Edmonds police.

In a police interview — what the woman’s lawyer called an “improper interrogation” — the suspect acknowledged she was in the car with the man that night. She said the man drove her to the 7-Eleven that morning. She knew something bad was going to happen because he was driving around with a gun and a covering around his neck which he could pull up to his face. When they got to the convenience store, he told her to get in the driver seat, but she said she refused.

“I know he was trying to rob something,” she reportedly told Edmonds Detective Andrew Mehl.

He went in the 7-Eleven with a gun. When he came out, he drove them to his house. She denied being the driver. Her DNA was later found on the steering wheel cover, according to court papers.

When she saw news coverage of Kandasamy’s death, she recognized the red and black coat the suspect was wearing was the same one the man wore that night, the woman told Mehl. The suspect reportedly later told her he burned the clothes from that day.

She told the detective that she didn’t know what he was going to do. She said she had asked to be taken home.

The woman was earlier arrested as a person of interest in Kandasamy’s death, in March 2020 after an hours-long standoff at a house on the eastern border of the Muckleshoot Indian Reservation near Auburn. She was detained, along with a 25-year-old Enumclaw man, on warrants from the state Department of Corrections. Someone who knew them told police she had heard the man was the shooter and the woman was the driver, according to the detective’s report.

The suspects did not cooperate with the homicide investigation at the time, said Edmonds Acting Assistant Police Chief Josh McClure. So police did not have probable cause to hold them for Kandasamy’s death.

As police continued to gather evidence, the suspects were released.

Investigators had been looking for the woman for weeks when they got word that Auburn police had found her this week, McClure said.

Meanwhile, the Enumclaw man is currently in jail in Pierce County on unrelated charges. Edmonds detectives plan to recommend charges of murder, attempted robbery and unlawful firearm possession against him.

The woman’s defense attorney, Stephen Ritchie, argued in court Thursday that probable cause should still not be found for her alleged role in Kandasamy’s slaying.

“There is no evidence that (the woman) solicited, commanded, encouraged or requested the co-defendant to shoot the victim in this case or to commit a robbery,” Ritchie said. “… Knowledge of a crime by itself is not a viable avenue to find someone to be an accomplice.”

Deputy prosecutor Michael Boska conceded it was a “close call” for probable cause.

Everett District Court Judge Pro Tem Noah Weil found probable cause for the crimes alleged.

“Mr. Ritchie raises some very strong arguments as far as whether the state could prove their case at trial or in some motions down the road, but for the low standard of probable cause at this time, I am going to find probable cause for both” first-degree murder and attempted first-degree robbery, Weil said.

The woman was to be released Thursday, the judge said. Prosecutors didn’t ask the judge to set bail.

In 2017, she pleaded guilty to first-degree armed robbery in King County. In that case, the woman and her sister stole cigarettes at gunpoint from a convenience store in Auburn, according to court documents. She was sentenced to 31 months.

The Enumclaw man has a lengthy rap sheet, including convictions for escape, robbery, burglary and retail theft, according to police.

People with information on Kandasamy’s death can contact Edmonds police at policetips@edmondswa.gov or 425-771-0212.

“The cowardly act that took the life of Mr. Kandasamy left a profound impact on his family and our community,” Edmonds police Chief Michelle Bennett said in a statement Thursday. “We will continue working with the prosecutor’s office to support their prosecution of the dangerous suspects. These arrests and charges are not a conclusion, but they bring us closer to providing justice for the Kandasamy family.”

Jake Goldstein-Street: 425-339-3439; jake.goldstein-street@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @GoldsteinStreet.