EVERETT — It was after 10:30 p.m. on a Wednesday in late August when the grandma, 59, and her son, 35, decided to turn in for the night.
They’d been sitting in the chairs on the front porch facing Del Campo Drive in a residential neighborhood east of Everett. She headed to her bedroom; he went to the computer room.
Less than five minutes later, a sport utility vehicle stopped in front of the home and shots were fired.
Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies discovered five spent shell casings on and alongside the road.
Two bullets were fired toward the front door near where the woman and her son had been minutes before. One bullet lodged into the living room wall. The other was on the ground near the front door.
Nearly a month later, detectives have arrested a Marysville man they believe fired the shots. Gordon M. Najera, 38, was booked into the Snohomish County Jail for investigation of first-degree assault with a firearm and drive-by shooting.
Deputies had been searching for him for more than a week. He made arrangements through his attorney to turn himself in Monday.
A judge on Tuesday set bail at $250,000.
Detectives believe that the home was targeted because the grandmother was involved in a custody issue involving her daughter and Najera. The defendant and the younger woman have a son but are not together, according to court records.
In the early morning hours after the shooting, deputies found a silver Chevy Suburban similar to the vehicle seen outside the Everett area home hours earlier. Inside was a bullet with a silver-colored shell casing on the driver’s side floorboard. It was the same caliber and appearance as the shell casings found at the shooting scene.
Detectives got search warrants for the car and for the man’s cellphone.
Najera’s cellphone records showed he was about 1 1/2 miles from the woman’s home as deputies were driving toward her home to respond to the shots-fired call, court records said.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com
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