Sopheatheara Kim, 22, looked ahead as his attorney entered his plea in the Nov. 14 shooting death of Shiloh Drott.

Kim is accused of shooting a handgun eight or nine times through a window into the center where 25 young people were reading Bibles, playing games and eating pizza. One bullet struck and killed Drott.

Two Pacific men charged with rendering criminal assistance in the first degree also pleaded not guilty Tuesday at the Regional Justice Center in Kent.

Chatri Lime Thip, 19, is accused of hiding Kim’s handgun. Salomon Nora Phe, 20, is accused of transporting Kim in his Jeep after the shooting.

All three were being held in jail at the Regional Justice Center. Kim’s bail was set at $1 million, Phe’s at $500,000 and Thip’s also at $500,000.

Friends and family of the defendants and Drott sat on opposite sides in the packed King County Superior Court. After the arraignment, the two sides left the court quietly without incident.

Drott’s family and friends wore white T-shirts with his picture and the phrases “In Loving Memory” and “You’re My Boy Bleau.” Drott’s middle name was Bleau.

Melissa Monroe, Drott’s mother, sat in the front row next to Drott’s sister, his brother and his cousin, waiting to see the man accused of killing her son.

“It’s scary,” Monroe, 45, of Pacific, said before the arraignment. “Just to see the face.”

According to charging papers:

Kim told Thip that two men were “mean mugging” him – street talk for giving a threatening look – in a nearby convenience store before the shooting. Kim walked across the street and looked into the community center through a window.

Thip told authorities that Kim exchanged challenging body language with someone inside the building before Kim pulled out a 9 mm, semiautomatic handgun and eventually fired it multiple times through the window.

Heather Worley, 22, said Drott was an innocent bystander. “Wrong place, wrong time,” said Worley, of Auburn.

Another friend of Drott said the arraignment reminded her of being in the community center that night when the shots rang out.

“It’s really hard,” said Nicole Vongsengchanh, 18, of Tacoma. “Inside, I really do want to break down.”

Jessie Hall, 22, said the arraignment made the killing of her friend feel even more real.

“This just felt like a big old dream that you wish you could wake up from,” said Hall, of Auburn.

Steve Maynard: 253-597-8647

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