ARLINGTON — A Marysville man accused of shooting his ex-girlfriend’s son has been arrested.
The suspect, 46, was booked into the Snohomish County Jail for investigation of first-degree assault.
According to a detective’s report, someone called 911 just before 9 a.m. Thursday, saying a man had been shot in the stomach outside a house off Highway 530 northeast of Arlington, and that they were on their way to Cascade Valley Hospital.
The man, 29, was still in the emergency room when Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies arrived. He told them he was with his girlfriend in a vehicle on his mother’s property, where they reportedly were allowed to stay, when his mother’s ex-boyfriend of 10 years showed up in a purple Jeep Cherokee. According to the wounded man, his mother and her ex-boyfriend broke up about nine months ago, but the ex-boyfriend has harassed them since.
The son said he walked up to the suspect’s vehicle and told him to leave.
The suspect didn’t leave.
Instead, he allegedly pulled out a gray handgun and shot the younger man in the stomach. As the injured man ran toward the house, the suspect allegedly fired two more shots, according to witnesses, then drove away.
One witness reported hearing the younger man shout out, “He shot me, he shot me.”
Medical staff told a detective the wound was through his spleen, lung and ribs, requiring immediate surgery. He was expected to survive.
“I am aware through training and experience this type of injury can easily lead to death and produces great bodily harm,” the detective wrote.
The younger man’s mother said the suspect had called her numerous times the evening before the shooting. Just before the alleged assault took place, she had answered another call from the suspect, and told him she didn’t want him on the property. She agreed to meet him in town.
They were still on the phone when she learned he was already on the property. She told him to “just leave” and hung up.
After, she heard three gunshots, according to court papers.
She told detectives that her ex-boyfriend owned a handgun and a rifle. As far as she was aware, her son did not have any weapons.
Detectives reportedly found two .45-caliber Winchester casings, a small copper bullet fragment and a fired bullet at the scene.
Around 6:30 p.m. Thursday, detectives with the Snohomish County Violent Offenders Task Force saw the suspect drive away from his mobile home near Marysville. They performed a traffic stop and arrested him. The suspect told detectives he shot in self-defense, and that he only fired warning shots. Detectives found a .45 caliber handgun tucked in the front of his pants.
The suspect later talked to detectives at the Snohomish County Courthouse, in a recorded interview that lasted about 1 hour and 40 minutes. He reported he drove to the house outside Arlington to pick up his ex-girlfriend. While he was parked in his Jeep, he said his ex-girlfriend’s son walked up to him with a crowbar in his hand. He told detectives he was trying to leave when the son rapidly approached him with the crowbar raised above his head. According to the suspect, he pointed his gun out the window, but away from his purported assailant, and fired two warning shots.
On his way out, the suspect reportedly said he pulled over twice to let patrol cars pass him. He told detectives he didn’t realize they were going to the scene of the shooting.
According to a detective’s report, the suspect acted surprised when told the other man had suffered a gunshot wound. The suspect reportedly didn’t believe the gunshot wound was the result of him firing the gun, because the other man was able to run away afterward.
Zachariah Bryan: 425-339-3431; zbryan@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @zachariahtb.
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