A 31-year-old man was arrested and charged with assault and drive-by shooting this week for an incident that happened in Bremerton over a year ago.
On March 3, 2024, many residents in the Spruce Avenue neighborhood on Bremerton’s east side called 911 and reported hearing gunshots near the street’s intersection with Sylvan Way just after midnight. A probable cause statement said witnesses also reported seeing a white sedan speeding from the scene with another light-colored vehicle in pursuit.
Minutes later the driver of the white sedan called 911, reporting that his car was shot while he was attempting to drop a woman off at her home on Spruce Avenue. According to a Bremerton Police Department report, when he got out of his car and went to open the car door for his date, two men wearing dark clothing and masks approached him.
When one of the men attempted to open the passenger door instead, the driver interpreted the man’s actions as an attempt to rob him, and punched him as an act of defense. The two briefly fought, according to a police report, before the driver got back into the car and started to drive off. As he drove away, he heard three sounds resembling gunfire.
When BPD spoke with the woman, she identified the man involved in the fight as someone she was formerly in a relationship with, and said the other man was a friend of his. She identified the second man as the one shooting a gun.
Interviews with the man involved in the altercation corroborated the female passenger’s story: the 32-year-old man said he and his friend approached the car due to his past relationship with the passenger, but was adamant that he did not fire any shots.
Upon examining the scene, officers located three Luger 9mm casings on the ground, which matched the listed firearm of the suspect’s partner, whom he lived with at the time. Additionally, an analysis of where the shots hit the back of the car, along with the driver and his passenger’s accounts of where the second male stood, suggested that it was the 31-year-old that opened fire.
Through additional warrants, BPD obtained both males’ phone records, which allowed them to examine text messages, calls and location data of the phone. That evidence placed them at the scene of the shooting that night and suggested that the suspect was responsible.
BPD’s supplemental report with their findings was finalized on August 20 and the suspect was arrested six days later, on August 26, and taken to Kitsap County Jail.
He was arraigned in Kitsap County Superior Court on Wednesday and plead guilty to charges of first-degree assault, drive-by shooting and unlawful possession of a firearm. He is scheduled to appear in front of a jury in October.
This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Bremerton police arrest man suspected of drive-by shooting