Drugs likely cause of shooting
Published 10:18 pm Wednesday, July 4, 2007
EVERETT – It likely was drugs that drew three men to a south Everett apartment last week. It was there they met with violence.
Jose Luis Gutierrez-Martinez, 24, was gunned down in the courtyard and another man was shot in the leg.
Police continue to search for whoever opened fire June 27 outside the apartments on W. Casino Road.
“We don’t have any suspects at this point,” Everett police Sgt. Robert Goetz said.
A search warrant filed in Everett District Court this week provides few details about what led to the shooting.
Officers found Gutierrez-Martinez dead outside an apartment building.
Witnesses told police they saw two men run from the area and drive away in 1987 Acura Legend.
Police later found the car about six blocks away. Officers located the wounded man nearby. He had been struck in the thigh and was taken to a local hospital.
It appears that he and the other man drove off in an attempt to flee from the shooter, Goetz said.
The wounded man told investigators that he, Gutierrez-Martinez and a third man went to the apartment to buy drugs, according to the search warrant.
Investigators found what appeared to be black tar heroin in aluminum foil in Gutierrez-Martinez’s clothes, police reported in court documents.
Detectives searched the Acura and found a glass bong. They didn’t report seizing anything else from the car.
Neighbors reported frequent drug and gang activity in the area.
Two men were wounded by gunfire in a gang-related shooting in April just a couple blocks away at Walter E. Hall Park.
One victim was shot in the leg by a stray bullet as he watched television. A Little League team scrambled for cover.
No one has been arrested in connection with that shooting.
Reporter Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463 or hefley@heraldnet.com.
