EVERETT — A suspected drug rip-off at an Everett motel left a man with 24 entry and exit wounds from gunshots, according to police reports.
Everett police arrested a suspect, a 23-year-old Marysville man, hours later on the fields at Madison Elementary. Bail was set Thursday at $250,000.
Police believe the Marysville man held the victim, a motel guest, at gunpoint around 10 a.m. Wednesday, as he walked back to his room at the Farwest Motel on Evergreen Way, according to court papers filed Thursday.
He was forced into his room, pistol-whipped and punched, police were told. A woman in the room was ordered to put her face into a pillow. The gunman kept aiming the pistol at the man, and threatened to shoot if he didn’t give up his money and drugs, according to the report. Two suspected accomplices, a man and a woman, grabbed cash and a bag of drugs from the room.
The robber told the bleeding man to clean himself up. But he wouldn’t move, fearing he’d be killed if he went into the bathroom, according to police. Eventually he charged at the gunman, who opened fire.
Once the wounded man was on the ground, the shooter fired twice more into his body, according to police. The rounds left marks in the floor, where the man had fallen.
Doctors at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett later counted 24 bullet wounds. He’d been shot in the chest, legs and head.
No official update has been released on his condition.
The suspect reportedly admitted to police he’d planned the robbery as a quick “lick,” an in-and-out heist, but no one was supposed to get hurt. He told police he fired the gun when the man rushed at him, court papers say. He showed officers where the gun had been disassembled and ditched, in a juniper bush behind the Value Village. The gun had what appeared to be blood on it. The man admitted he’d taken off his red sweatshirt and put it in a garbage bin nearby.
The suspect told officers he’d hidden in a back yard until a resident found him, forcing him to run again. An officer stationed at the elementary school spotted a man — who matched the suspect description — crossing the playfields, with a cast on his right leg around 3 p.m.
Eight spent 9 mm shell casings were found in the motel room, along with one cartridge that hadn’t been fired. The suspect told police he’d racked the slide once, to show the man the gun was loaded and he was serious.
He was being held for investigation of first-degree robbery, first-degree assault and possession of a firearm by a felon. Court records show the suspect has a history of robbery, child molestation, misdemeanor assault and failing to register as a sex offender. He had been sentenced to three years in prison in 2015, for a shooting where he was convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm.
He remains under corrections supervision, documents show.
On Thursday morning, Everett police pulled over the pair suspected of helping the shooter. Officer Aaron Snell said police hoped to interview them. Their vehicle was impounded as evidence.
Caleb Hutton: 425-339-3454; chutton@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snocaleb.
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