A 20-year-old man has been charged in a drive-by shooting that required SWAT intervention in the South Hill area Thursday.
Pierce County prosecutors charged the man with two counts of first-degree assault, drive-by shooting and resisting arrest.
A plea of not guilty was entered on the man’s behalf during his arraignment Friday afternoon. Pierce County Superior Court Judge Pro Tempore Megan Foley set bail at $150,000, court documents show.
Charging documents give the following account: Deputies were dispatched at 7:06 a.m. for reports of a man who had been shot at 167th Street Court East.
Deputies found the victim, a 48-year-old man, collapsed in the doorway of a home with a single gunshot wound. He was conscious, according to charging documents.
The man told deputies that he went to a home in the 12900 block of 167th Street Court East to pick someone up. He went inside the home to get the person he was meeting with, and when the two went outside to go to his car, a burgundy Nissan car pulled up next to him and shot him, documents state.
The people inside the home where the man was found by deputies were not involved in the shooting, and did not see it happen, according to detectives.
Detectives spoke to the person who made the 911 call. She said she saw the person fire three gunshots and hit the car the victim drove. The shooter drove off after the incident and drove around the area and eventually returned.
The victim told detectives at the hospital that he did not know who shot him or why, charging documents state. He described the alleged shooter’s car, which was later found in front of the home where the shooting happened.
Detectives learned that the alleged shooter and the person that the victim was with knew each other. She provided his name and social media information. She also told detectives that the alleged shooter may have believed that the victim’s friends had stolen his property, which could have been the motive for the shooting.
The car that the victim was entering before he was shot was reportedly registered to another man with a criminal history, according to charging documents.
After deputies found that the alleged shooter was inside the house, he refused to come out. The Sheriff’s Office SWAT team went to the home to arrest the man, documents state. After about two hours of callouts, the man surrendered and was arrested.
Inside the house, detectives found the gun that may have been used in the shooting, documents state.
Video footage from the area reportedly showed the alleged shooter’s vehicle drive into the neighborhood at 7:03 a.m. Gunshots were heard soon after.
Edgerton Elementary School, which was near the shooting scene, closed for the day due to the police activity, according to its website.
Records show the defendant has not been previously convicted of a crime. He was allegedly involved in another shooting from Sept. 3 where he allegedly fired gunshots from a Hyundai Sonata. The man also has a bench warrant from King County Superior Court and Kent Municipal Court.