Details remain sparse in investigation of fatal Everett burglary

EVERETT — Johnny Sok, 22, died just a mile and a half from his family’s home, fatally shot inside a stranger’s house.

A few friends and relatives have shared notes of grief on social media websites, but at this point, few details have emerged about the 22-year-old Everett man.

Detectives believe Sok broke into a house in south Everett on Monday. He surprised the homeowner, who opened fire, police say. Sok died at the scene.

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The Snohomish County sheriff’s Major Crime Unit is investigating. No arrests have been made or charges brought in the case.

Sheriff’s bureau chief Kevin Prentiss on Thursday declined to share further details about the investigation. Detectives searched the home where Sok died earlier this week, but they haven’t shared what they found.

Records show that Sok lived in the Everett area for several years and had attended local schools. His listed address is just more than a mile and a half from where he died, along 21st Avenue SE.

Sok had no known felony history in Washington. Court papers show brushes with the law within the past two years.

He pleaded guilty in December in a car theft case and was fined, according to court records. He was arrested and jailed in Everett in late October but released without charges being filed.

Sok’s friends and family didn’t immediately return interview requests from the Herald.

His mother did, however, speak with the Herald’s news partner, KIRO-TV news.

Sovanaa Sok told KIRO that her son had struggled with a drug problem and that she had begged him to get help.

According to social media postings by friends and family, several memorial events were planned this week in the Kent area. Sok also had family in Stockton, Calif.

A woman who wrote that she was Sok’s aunt said he died too young.

“Young at age and at heart you were finding your place in this world, as many of us are, not knowing that you needed to be up in heaven so suddenly,” she wrote on her Facebook page.

Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.

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