FOLLOWUP: $50,000 bail for 4th of July rifle-firing suspect

As promised, we followed up today on the case of the man arrested in North Delridge for allegedly firing what police described as an “assault rifle” on the 4th of July. We just obtained probable-cause documents from this afternoon’s bail hearing for the 29-year-old suspect, whose bail was set at $50,000.

The documents say he is a resident of the apartment in the 4100 block of 25th SW where witnesses say they saw him “shooting a long gun into the air,” an officer wrote in the report. As mentioned in yesterday’s SPD Blotter report, the shots were first heard by officers who were behind the DSHS building in the 4000 block of Delridge at the time, around 11:20 pm on the 4th, describing what they heard as “6-8 rapid-fire gunshots.” They were advised via radio that 911 calls had come in, too. When they got to the building, one officer “took up a position” behind it, their partner did the same in front, and the officer in the rear saw the suspect leaving the building shortly thereafter, “holding a long gun in his right hand.” The officer ordered him to put it down, but the suspect “ignored (the) orders and instead turned and ran back inside the building while still carrying the long gun.” Several minutes and repeated “orders” later, the officer writes, the suspect and nine other people left the apartment; police got a relative of the building’s owner to give consent to a search, and inside, they say, the found “an AK-47” (SPD photo at left), subsequently finding “16 spent 7.62mm casings (which they) photographed and collected” from the front yard. The report adds that the suspect “admitted to firing the weapon … stating that he fired off some celebratory rounds into the air while some fireworks were set off.” They then discovered, checking his record, that he had multiple felony convictions.

The report does not say anything about the gun and its ownership beyond the “AK-47” and “long gun” description. That information might be part of charging documents, which prosecutors could file as soon as tomorrow, before the suspect is due back in court. Online court files indicate he also lived at the 25th SW address at the time of his most recent felony conviction, a drug case dating back to the fall of 2007.

22 Replies to "FOLLOWUP: $50,000 bail for 4th of July rifle-firing suspect"

  • PSC617 July 6, 2016 (5:56 pm)

    Felon dirtbag firing off celebratory 7.62mm rounds with his illegally owned AK-47, just beautiful. Lucky he’s not dead. Nice job, SPD. 

  • Jake from State Farm July 6, 2016 (6:23 pm)

    How did a convicted felon get a long rifle and another that looked like a AK-47?

    Do the guns have serial numbers? Who sold them to him?

    • Jon July 6, 2016 (7:56 pm)

      It is likely stolen (or a friend’s, et cetera).

      And yes, all guns have serial numbers unless they are filed off (which is illegal).

    • Bradley July 6, 2016 (7:56 pm)

       Good questions.

    • Vern Fonk July 6, 2016 (8:06 pm)

      Um, this is America.  Anyone can buy anything they want.  It is called LIBERTY.  You know, like what was celebrated on Monday.

      • Peter July 7, 2016 (9:56 am)

        No, firing into the air is not in any way liberty. Those bullets have to come down, and when they do they can kill people. This is not liberty, this is depraved, sociopathic violence with a total disregard for human life.

  • SRRA July 6, 2016 (7:53 pm)

    The building’s owner consented to a search? This building is owned by Seattle Housing Authority. So SHA is aware this is happening on their property? 

  • Jon July 6, 2016 (7:55 pm)

    Nice write-up (better than SPD’s). Hopefully they get the appropriate punishment for endangering their neighbors and for the illegal possession; and good job to the officers involved for making the arrest with no casualties or trading of gunfire.

    The classification of the “AK-47” is likely incorrect. They are actually extremely rare in this country (for many years, importation of Russian firearms was illegal — mostly politics from the Cold War). It is most likely an AK derivative (possibly based off of the AKM and made in China, the US, or an ex-Soviet Bloc state); though, I can’t really make out the model it’s derived from, as it looks rather cobbled together.

    The reason I mention this is because most people associate “AK-47” with fully-automatic “Machine Gun” rifles they see in war movies (which leads to misinformation, greater levels of panic, et cetera). This rifle is likely a semi-auto sporting rifle with conversion kits for the handguard rails and the M4-style buttstock. In that case, it’s not much different from something you could buy at Cabela’s. And as another commenter mentioned when the news broke: it’s very likely the the weapon was stolen.

    Either way, the guy is an idiot for doing what he did. I’m glad nobody was hurt. Stay safe.

    • WSB July 6, 2016 (8:44 pm)

      Jon – Thanks – the SPD media-relations team, which writes SPD Blotter, generally just gets initial reports, which is why their coverage usually stops at arrest, and if it’s a West Seattle case, we generally do what we can to follow it through bail hearing/charges or no charges/eventual disposition, but from there, it’s all up to us to pursue that additional elsewhere from other sources. So they probably didn’t have access to as much information as appeared in the “superform” for today’s bail hearing, which we subsequently can get on request from the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office if we don’t go to the hearing (that requires some time commitment and a trip downtown, so we usually only do that for something major like a homicide case). I wish I had some way of finding out more about the gun but we’ll have to wait and see if he is charged tomorrow and if he is (they can decline to charge or release him with the possibility of charges later) if the charging documents have that information.

      SRRA – The exact language (these docs are sent in a format that I can’t cut and paste, and I didn’t have time to transcribe) was “A consent to search from the apartment owner’s adult son was obtained …” The person was not named nor was an entity mentioned. – TR

    • Safety Officer July 7, 2016 (2:45 pm)

      Looks to be a Romanian WASR Series, not the lack of dimples in the mag well. It was the cheapest AK on the market for years.  The modifications on it are terrible, who ever did that to  Lieutenant-General Mikhail
      Timofeyevich Kalashnikov’s invention should be jailed for heresy. 

  • Sam-c July 6, 2016 (10:17 pm)

    I have to say,the commentary from gun owners on this story and other stories about this incident is refreshingly civil. I don’t have a gun and don’t plan on getting one, ever, but feel like i’ve learned so much, and don’t think all gun owners are crazy…

    • Jon July 6, 2016 (10:43 pm)

      Hah! We’re not, I assure you! The last thing legal gun owners want are yahoos like this guy giving the public the impression that this is how most gun owners behave; when in reality, most gun owners won’t even let you hold an unloaded gun until they drill about an hour’s worth of safety lectures into your noggin.

      Law-abiding citizens have to jump through plenty of hoops to get their guns. Criminals steal them (usually from someone they know). And no amount of legislation will fix stupid, unfortunately.

      So if you think you’re upset about dingdongs like this guy, think about it from the perspective of legal gun owners; someone who has been the victim of a violent crime and carries for protection; someone who just likes to target practice in their spare time. People like this dummy get the public (rightfully) upset and (wrongfully) upset with all gun owners; so politicians start trying to pass sweeping (and poorly-written) gun laws that end up just making things a bigger pain for the people who would otherwise never even think about behaving in such a way. It’s unfortunate.

      You’d be surprised at the amount of people who own and (legally) carry, too. But a big part of being a gun owner is being responsible, safe, and in displaying some common courtesy in addressing people who might not have enough information to make informed judgments regarding firearms. I think that if you ever found yourself in the company of responsible gun owners, you wouldn’t be very nervous at all. At least that’s been my experience.

      I’ve trained a handful of people who’ve all started out extremely afraid of even the concept of being in the same room as an unloaded gun; after enough time, with caution and patience, they’ve all come away glad that they’ve faced their fears and learned a new skill. And they all turned out to be great shots (go figure)!

      At the end of the day, they’re just basic machines — nothing “evil” about them and nothing “crazy” about the people who use or own them for fun or for self-defense. But they’re not for everybody. To each their own.

      • erm July 7, 2016 (9:50 am)

        Jon, you win the blog today! What thoughtful, open, & reasonable commentary.  Thanks.  Glad SPD handled this the way they did, glad that gun is of the streets, glad to hear from gun people who don’t scare me about guns more. 

  • MJ July 6, 2016 (10:57 pm)

    This guy is lucky to be alive. Officer orders him to drop his assault rifle, he disobeys and runs? He’s really lucky he wasn’t shot. How did he get bail? Hope he gets at least five years zero chance of parole.

  • d July 7, 2016 (7:29 am)

    If he’s been charged why isn’t his name being posted

    • WSB July 7, 2016 (8:46 am)

      He has not been charged. A bail hearing is for a judge to determine if there is probable cause to continue holding the suspect, and if so, what initial bail should be set. Then there’s a second appearance (today) by which time either charges will have been filed and the judge will review the bail amount again, or if not charged, and no other reason to hold the suspect (such as a warrant), they’ll be released, with the possibility they could be charged later. – TR

  • USA-1 July 7, 2016 (10:15 am)

    Lock him up for life, melt the gun. Problem solved. Next.

  • Jonah July 7, 2016 (11:18 pm)

    The rounds on a rifle like that are large solid slugs, they are as dangerous fired in the air as they are fired in a general direction. The reason birdshot is used in shotguns for bird hunting is that the small pellets have limited range and by themselves would do limited damage. I’m curios about the possible damage/ injuries within the radius around the incident that might not yet be connected to this stupidity. People are killed every year from heavy rounds falling from the sky.

  • Tee July 8, 2016 (7:18 am)

    “police got a relative of the building’s owner to give consent to a search” ??? this is section 8 housing, doesn’t the city own this duplex? (not an apartment) and will they be evicted?  I know a lot of nice people in this neighborhood and they are shaken. How do they get them to leave? There has been nefarious activity going on there for quite some time. 

  • Tee July 8, 2016 (5:58 pm)

    Thought I’d share a response I got from a friend today when I told her…..she has a point don’t you think ?

    “Seattle
    Housing Authority should by law have them evicted for all those crimes
    listed. They should be ashamed to be housing felons. Shameful on
    Seattle!! Someone needs to let them know the type of folks they are
    allowing to live on our tax dollars paying their rents.”


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