10:57 AM: Police have arrested a suspect in connection with the shooting that killed a man in an encampment at 26th/Juneau early Monday. Police say a 911 tip led them to the 43-year-old man in South Delridge (the call log says the 9400 block of Delridge Way SW). He was booked into the King County Jail early today. Jail records show the suspect had spent a month there recently, from May 11th to June 13th, in relation to an auto-theft case.
4:21 PM UPDATE: Court documents reveal more about the murder case, including the victim’s name, Anthony Gonzales; the King County Medical Examiner says he was 58 years old. We are also naming the suspect – Jaycee C. Thompson – as he is already charged in another case (the auto-theft case is actually from a West Seattle incident last year, covered here).
In Monday’s murder, the initial police document says Thompson was a “friend” of Mr. Gonzales, who lived at the encampment. Less than an hour before the shooting, police say, Thompson allegedly assaulted another “friend” in the 9400 block of Delridge Way SW. He then drove to the encampment at 25th/Juneau, where he allegedly ordered someone at gunpoint to take him to the victim’s campsite. Another witness told police that Thompson kicked open the door to Mr. Gonzales’s “makeshift structure” and then said something about money and drugs before shooting the victim in the face.
The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office provided us with information explaining why Thompson was released from jail a week before this, and what led up to it. The original case was a car theft at the Delridge Arco/AM-PM in March of last year; Thompson was held after that in lieu of $5,000 bail. The KCPAO filed the auto-theft charge against Thompson in April. In August of last year, his lawyer argued for “less-restrictive conditions of release. A Superior Court judge released him on his personal recognizance. In October, a warrant was issued after he failed to show up for a hearing. He was arrested on January 5th. Two weeks later, the Northwest Community Bail Fund posted the $5,000 for his bail, and he was released. Two months later – in March – Thompson again failed to appear for a hearing; another warrant was issued. He was arrested May 11th. On June 13th, his lawyer “made another motion for less restrictive alternatives. THE KCPAO objected to his release – he still had a warrant active in a Pierce County DUI case. A judge released him to the Community Center for Alternative Programs on his personal recognizance,” per KCPAO spokesperson Casey McNerthney. That was one week before this Monday’s murder. The first hearing in that case has just concluded, McNerthney tells us, with no bail decision since the suspect “refused to come to court.”
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