Tomorrow, the suspects charged with murder in the February 1st West Seattle shooting death of Steve Bushaw are expected in court. The case has been much-discussed since we first reported the 4 arrests last week, then details of the charges. According to court documents, the suspects believed the victim was responsible for a crime for which he was never charged; the documents include no evidence of his involvement in that crime. The Bushaw family has declined requests for comment as the 10-month investigation proceeded, but the victim’s sister, Tanya Bushaw, asked if we would publish something she wanted to say on her brother’s behalf – here is her statement in its entirety:
Over the past ten months my family has decided to keep our comments to ourselves regarding the killing of my brother, Stevie Bushaw. We didn’t know any details as the detectives could not tell us anything due to it being an active, on-going investigation. However, on Tuesday when we found out police had arrested 4 men who were involved in his murder we were so relieved, excited, and sad all at the same time. We finally had some sort of resolution to this situation and more insight as to what happened that night. Despite these arrests, it is still an on-going investigation and we only know what has been written in the charging documents.
You cannot imagine how hard it is to hear your son/brother say “Bye, I’ll be back. I’m going to have a beer with Bryce” and then 15 minutes later he is dead and you have no idea why or how it happened. You only know he will not be back…ever!
Before this I only saw my dad cry twice, maybe three times in my life and now he cries everyday. My mother, in addition to all her tears, was sure her heart shrunk because her chest felt sunken after this happened. My daughter, 4, has had to learn about death, guns, and “bad guys” that use guns to kill people. Too many nights I had to hold her and calm her down from crying so hard because she missed her Uncle Stevie. As a whole we are all very sensitive to each other’s well being in fear that we might lose another member of this family.
(Editor’s note: That is Tanya’s daughter, Ava, held by Steve Bushaw in the photo above, shared earlier this year by the family. Tanya’s statement continues after the jump.)
Emotionally, this has been the hardest thing my family has ever had to endure. On top of all the emotions I have felt, I now have to deal with another form of anger and frustration from all the comments that people are leaving in regards to my brother’s character. I have always tried to take a step back, put myself in the other person’s shoes and attempt to think rationally about situations that I have a difficult time understanding. I understand that most of these people who have left harsh comments did not know my brother and so to them he is merely a piece of the puzzle. This being the case, it is easy for people to make comments after reading through the charging documents which highlight Stevie as a “drug dealer” and detail claims from a man who was robbed stating my brother was the one who robbed him.
But let’s think about this. A man, who is friends with one of the men who killed my brother, was robbed January 19, 2009 and my brother was killed 14 days later. So in less than 2 weeks the man who was robbed came to his own conclusion that my brother was the one who robbed him. He made this decision because Stevie did not “place an order” for marijuana after the robbery leading him to believe Stevie must have been the one who did it.
The charging documents also state that this man said Stevie called him after the robbery asking questions about the event and if any one saw the getaway car. Is it not possible though that my brother didn’t need anything after the robbery? Wouldn’t you call someone you knew to see how they were if you heard they were robbed? Maybe my brother was curious about details of the situation because he could lend an idea to who might have done this.
One of the other details noted in the documents state that this robbery took place in front of the man’s girlfriend and child. I can in fact relay that if my brother was involved, he would NEVER let anything happen in front of a child. He had a very special place in his heart for children and the elderly. He would help an elderly person across the street at any time and play with children any day. Any person who knew him would also confirm this. It was such a strong part of his character that anyone who knew him also knew this about him.
I am sure the man who was robbed was upset and angry. It was also obvious he wanted someone to pay for his pain as the intentions were to kill the person responsible, even if it was based on speculation. All of this aside, I don’t have my brother here to sit down in front of me so I can look him in the eye and ask “Did you do this? Did you rob this man?” and I never will. I do have the detectives though and I have asked them about my brother’s possible connection with the robbery. They explained that they looked into it and there is NOTHING they could find that showed he was involved with this robbery. I understand this doesn’t mean that he without a doubt did not have anything to do with it but it certainly doesn’t make him guilty by any means either.
The only thing my brother is guilty of is selling marijuana. He did not sell anything other then marijuana and he only sold small amounts to friends and co-workers. When he was young he was more involved in selling marijuana and he also made poor choices with whom he associated with. However, over the past few years he no longer had anything to do with these types of people because he was excited to have an opportunity to become a member of the Longshoremen Union and begin a career as a Longshoreman. Every day he went down to the union hall when it opened so he could put his name in to get called, just hoping to get more hours and gain in the ranks. This is not easy though and you hardly ever get called out when you are first starting out like he was. When you are not called, you don’t get paid.
He lived at home and therefore he was able to afford not working a second job so that he could spend every moment sitting at the hall waiting to get called in order to make more money. He sold marijuana to his friends and co-workers to make enough money to keep up on his bills and have gas money. He wasn’t trying to be a “drug dealer” in the stereotypical way. He just wanted to get by so he could work more at the docks, gain in the ranks, and eventually make good money so he could leave selling marijuana behind altogether.
I am not condoning the fact that my brother sold marijuana. In fact I hated it and asked him to stop doing it; reminding him that it was illegal and he was getting on the right track so don’t ruin it. He tried to assure us that it was fine because he was selling to friends and his “brothers” at the docks. He loved the docks and his “brothers”, as they called each other. He took that “brotherly love” and trusted in his “brothers”. Unfortunately, he was wrong.
I know I am his sister and many people will say that I am trying to see the best in him but I will be the first to say that he was not innocent. He was guilty of associating with people who were on a different level than he was and he simply had no idea. This is the risk you run though when you make the choice to associate with these people in the first place, which is what I reminded him of so many times.
The only thing I can see so far is that my brother unfortunately trusted his “brothers” and was guilty of selling marijuana, which of course is illegal. Other than that he was THOUGHT to have done something that he most likely had nothing to do with therefore these men acted as the judge, the jury and the executioner. Because of this Stevie was murdered and my family will never be able to ask him another question nor will he ever be able to defend himself or tell his side of the story.
Therefore my only intent in writing this is to try and tell Stevie’s side of story since he isn’t alive to tell it himself. My brother was killed based on an assumption only as these men THOUGHT he committed the robbery. How can anyone say a man deserves to die because someone THOUGHT he was guilty?
The four suspects — 27-year-old Bryce Huber, 30-year-old Brandon Chaney, 28-year-old Danny O’Neal Jr., 32-year-old John Sylve — remain in jail. Police have said the investigation is not over and asked last week for any additional information that members of the public might have.
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