TULALIP — A Tulalip resident has been charged with murdering his former friend on the reservation while they were working on a car together.
Almost a year after the killing, Abdul Qasim Ray Zahir was arraigned while in custody Thursday on charges of second-degree murder, using a firearm during a crime of violence, unlawful possession of a firearm and unlawful possession of ammunition. A federal grand jury indicted him earlier this month.
Zahir, 37, was working in the detached garage of a home on Totem Beach Road with six other people in May 2022, according to the charges filed in the U.S. District Court in Seattle.
Around 10:10 p.m., a woman got into an argument with Francisco Barraso-Ortega, 60, about the noise he was making with a power tool, the charges say. She reportedly said the tool he was using on a car was too loud, so she unplugged it.
This upset Barraso-Ortega, and he walked toward her, according to the charges. Zahir allegedly shot him with a “tan/army brown firearm that looked like it was made of plastic.” The woman heard around five shots, court documents said.
The witness wanted to call 911, claiming they could say Zahir shot him in self-defense, according to the charges. Zahir allegedly asked her to not tell anyone what happened, and to not help the wounded man, despite her pleas.
Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies arrived and noticed a trail of blood running down the ramp from the garage. Blood was also on the locked door. Deputies broke in, and the door hit the body of the man, who was lying face-up with a single gunshot wound to his head.
The Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the slain man and determined that he had been shot three times, listing his cause of death as “gunshot wounds to the head and torso.”
Federal court papers identify Zahir as “an Indian,” but do not list his tribal affiliation. The FBI often handles serious criminal investigations on Native American reservations.
In statements to agents, the witness believed Zahir and Barraso-Ortega had been close friends, but had been fighting for a week prior to the shooting, the witness told investigators. She previously overheard Zahir telling his mother that he was going to shoot Barraso-Ortega in the head, according to the charges.
Police interviewed Zahir twice. At first, he declined to make any statements. In the second interview, he told police he had been working on the car with Barraso-Ortega. He reportedly said they didn’t really know each other, but they generally got along.
Asked who shot the man, Zahir said he did not want to answer, according to the charges.
Federal agents issued a search warrant on Zahir’s home. In his bedroom, agents seized a 9 mm “ghost gun” with a dark gray receiver, brown slide with camouflage markings and a silver-colored metal cylinder wrapped in a blue material attached to the end.
According to the witness, Zahir had said that he had guns, and they were all handmade. Agents also seized multiple loaded magazines, ammunition and other firearm parts from his bedroom. In the detached garage, investigators found a black AR-style ghost gun with the handwritten marking “BAD ASS,” another AR ghost gun and a .22-caliber rifle with a modified barrel.
Zahir has previous felony criminal convictions.
In 2005, he served a 14-month sentence for second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.
In 2007, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison in Oregon for possession with intent to distribute ecstasy.
And he was charged with ramming a stolen truck into a Costco to open fire on a jewelry case in Issaquah in August 2020. King County court records suggest that case was still pending as of this week, with Zahir failing to appear for hearings in 2022.
Jonathan Tall: 425-339-3486; jonathan.tall@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @EDHJonTall.
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