Victim of a random shooting in Lynnwood might not survive

LYNNWOOD — A 20-year-old man remains hospitalized after a random shooting last month outside a restaurant.

It’s unclear if the man will survive, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Craig Matheson wrote in court papers.

The victim was shot in the head July 15 while he and two friends were parked outside Shari’s in the 19000 block of Highway 99 in Lynnwood.

Prosecutors have charged a convicted felon with first-degree assault and unlawful gun possession. Arvin Weathers, 35, could face a murder or manslaughter charge if the victim doesn’t survive.

There’s no evidence that Weathers knew the victim or his friends, or that they had any interaction that night inside or outside the restaurant.

After having a meal, the victim and his friends were seated in a Honda Civic outside the restaurant, checking social media sites on their phones and talking about when they’d see each other again, court papers said.

A single shot rang out. The victim was motionless in the front passenger seat and his friends saw he had blood on his face. He’d been struck in the head, two inches above his right ear.

A pickup truck parked next to the Honda slowly left the lot. Police found the truck abandoned in the 7500 block of 190th Street SW. The truck is registered to Weathers. Police found a 9mm Glock handgun near the truck. The weapon had been reported stolen in Bellevue. The gun owner knows the defendant’s cousin, court papers said.

Detectives spoke with Weathers’ ex-wife, who said she’d received a call from the defendant hours earlier. He asked her to take care of their child and hung up. She told police he’d recently been living in a clean-and-sober house but was evicted because he started using methamphetamine again, Matheson wrote.

Seven hours after the shooting Weathers called Lynnwood detectives. He allegedly told them that he’d gone to the restaurant to buy drugs. He said the drug dealer also had a gun for sale. Weathers said he was handling the gun in his lap when it accidentally went off.

Detectives impounded his pickup truck. They calculated the trajectory of the bullet based on damage to both vehicles’ passenger-side windows.

That led them to believe that the “defendant’s story of the gun being in this lap when it ‘accidentally’ discharged could not have occurred. The trajectory indicated that the gun had been discharged while pointing downward at approximately 10 degrees,” Matheson wrote.

A witness told detectives that Weathers claimed the trio had been “messing” with him so he pointed the weapon at them and it accidentally went off, court papers said.

That same witness said Weathers becomes highly paranoid when he’s using meth.

“The shooting appears to have been completely random, the victim utterly unknown to the defendant,” Matheson wrote.

Weathers is being held on $1 million bail.

Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @dianahefley.