Update Wednesday, 9/5, 11:49 a.m.: The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office says the suspected shooter, a 34-year-old Everett man, now is also in custody. The victim told police he did not know his attackers but that it may have been an attempted drug robbery.
LYNNWOOD — A suspected accomplice in a nearly deadly shooting at a Lynnwood car wash left his driver’s license in the abandoned getaway car and bragged about being one of Washington’s Most Wanted, according to the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office.
An armed standoff Monday morning led to his arrest for investigation of first-degree assault. That came a month after the car wash shooting left a man quadriplegic and likely in need of full-time care for the rest of his life, according to charges filed in court.
The suspect from the standoff is accused of driving the gunman to and from the scene in August. The shooter was still at large Tuesday.
Security footage showed a car wash customer, 23, pulling into a Brown Bear Car Wash self-serve station around 1 a.m. Aug. 5 on 164th Street SW, according to the charges. A red PT Cruiser pulled into a neighboring stall. Two men hopped out, peeked over at the man’s car and hurriedly threw on dark clothes — one in all black, one in camouflage.
The customer was sitting in the driver’s seat when the man in black attacked him with what appeared to be a stun gun, according to the charges. Camera footage showed an electrical flash amid a scuffle, and the 23-year-old wrestled away the stun gun from the attacker. The two men retreated to the PT Cruiser, where the man in black retrieved a pistol. As the victim started to drive away, the gunman fired a round into the car that hit the back of his neck and lodged in his spine. The car lurched forward, crashing through a fence and into a building. The PT Cruiser sped off, with the man in camouflage driving.
The wounded man’s injuries continue to be life-threatening. “However, his condition is stable,” according to the charges. Authorities have not suggested a possible motive for the attack.
Hours after the gunfire, two miles from the scene of the shooting, a Lynnwood man found a black hoodie, a black hat, black gloves and sunglasses stashed alongside his home, near an empty, parked PT Cruiser. Detectives confirmed the vehicle had the same license plate and rear window stickers as the car in the shooting video. On the floorboard, detectives later found the temporary paper driver’s license of the 29-year-old man, tucked beside a camouflage jacket.
Weeks later, deputies learned the same man had told someone he’d been on Washington’s Most Wanted and even showed an acquaintance a YouTube video of the shooting. He reportedly told the man he didn’t fire the shot but that he was at the scene. He called himself an “idiot” because he’d left his driver’s license in the car, according to the charges — a detail that hadn’t yet been released to the public.
He allegedly went on to say he didn’t want to go back to prison and suggested he’d have a shootout with police if he was caught. Police were told the man, 29, carried a small revolver.
Court records show he has spent years behind bars for identity theft, drug possession, burglary and bail jumping.
On the afternoon of Aug. 22, Everett police tried to arrest a man pumping gas in the 8500 block of Evergreen Way, thinking it was a different person with a warrant. Officers jumped out of a patrol car.
“You’re under arrest, Steve!” they shouted. “Get your hands up!”
An image from surveillance video of suspects involved in an Aug. 5 shooting at the Brown Bear Car Wash on 164th Street SW in Lynnwood. (Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office)
The man dove into the driver’s seat of the Cadillac, then fumbled with something in his sweatshirt until he found his keys. Police broke out a window with a baton as the man shifted into gear and swerved away, ripping the hose of the gas nozzle from the pump, court papers say. An Everett officer wrote that he had to jump out of the way to avoid being hit.
A woman at the scene asked the police why they kept calling the man “Steve,” because that wasn’t his name, court papers say. She said she was his mother. She said her son was “very likely high on illegal narcotics and was making bad decisions,” according to police reports filed in court.
A tip led detectives to the man on the morning of Labor Day, at a home in the 14700 block of Manor Way, a few miles northwest of the car wash. Deputies ordered everyone out of the house at 5 a.m., and several people emerged. But, according to the sheriff’s office, the suspect had barricaded himself inside.
A SWAT team arrived at the scene around 6 a.m. Over the hours that followed, the team tried to convince the man to exit. Deputies sent a wheeled robot into the house around 8:40 a.m. Moments later the man came outside. A second man, 27, exited through the door, too. He had a warrant for a parole violation but no apparent link to the shooting at the car wash.
No one was hurt in the standoff. A gun was recovered from the home. The 29-year-old man was arrested for investigation of more than a dozen charges, including second-degree assault for allegedly almost running over the police officer.
Everett District Court Judge Tam Bui set bail Tuesday at $25,000 in the gas station assault. A $250,000 warrant had been issued for the man’s arrest last week, when charges of first-degree assault were filed in the shooting.
Deputies released security camera images from the car wash last month. Tips about the identity of the gunman can be directed to the sheriff’s office at 425-388-3845.
Caleb Hutton: 425-339-3454; chutton@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snocaleb.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
