MOSCOW, Idaho — The lone survivor of a shooting spree that left three people dead, including the mother of the suspect, said he believes he was deliberately spared by the shooter, a newspaper reported Thursday.
Michael Chin told police he believes he was intentionally wounded by the shooter, who could have killed him at the start of the Jan. 10 spree, The Moscow-Pullman Daily News said.
The information was included in a supplemental affidavit that included comments from a March 18 telephone interview between police and Chin.
John Lee, 29, of Moscow, Idaho, is being held in the Latah County Jail without bond on three counts of first-degree murder and one count of aggravated battery.
He is accused of killing businessman David Trail, restaurant manager Belinda Niebuhr and his mother, Terri Grzebielski — along with wounding Chin.
Prosecutors have not yet decided if they will seek the death penalty.
“Chin said he thinks it was Lee’s intent to slow him down so he could not make a call to the police,” Moscow police Sgt. Tyson Berrett wrote in the affidavit.
Chin was inside an insurance office with Trail when a gunman entered and shot both men, police said.
“Chin believed Lee had a plan and he only shot him in the leg and the arm so he could continue in his plan,” Berrett wrote. “Chin thought he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
The affidavit included details from video footage from 16 cameras outside Trail’s office. At one point, Lee is seen leaving his apartment and walking toward Trail’s office.
Two minutes later, footage shows him in front of the office, pulling a semi-automatic handgun from his right pocket and entering the building, the affidavit states.
A minute later, Lee is seen leaving the office and driving away.
Berrett wrote that he interviewed a taxi driver identified only as T.G. who said he was pumping gas next door to a fast-food restaurant when he heard gunshots and saw people fleeing. A man matching Lee’s description walked from the restaurant with a black handgun, the affidavit states.
The taxi driver said he followed a car used by the man and called 911. The car later parked across the street from Grzebielski’s home, the taxi driver reported.
Lee was arrested in Washington after a high-speed chase.
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