Man sentenced for shooting up Orting house party

A man accused of wounding another man last year after shooting indiscriminately into a crowd at an Orting house party has been sentenced.

Judge G. Helen Whitener gave 21-year-old Isaiah Bickham seven years, nine months in prison Friday during his sentencing in Pierce County Superior Court.

One of the bullets Bickham fired went through another man’s chest and into his arm, prosecutors said.

Last month he pleaded guilty to second-degree assault, felony harassment, driving under the influence, being a minor drunk in public, failing to have an ignition interlock device and driving with a suspended license.

Charging papers give the following account of the shooting:

Bickham was attending a party on Jan. 29, 2016, when he retrieved a gun from his pickup after he seeing some gang members he believed had killed his friend.

At one point, a fight broke out, and Bickham fired a 9 mm pistol into the crowd, taking some blind shots as he ran off. Investigators found 9 mm and .45-caliber shells at the house and estimated that 20 shots were fired.

Soon after the shooting, Bickham nearly crashed his pickup into a state trooper’s vehicle. Police pulled him over and noticed that he smelled like alcohol and marijuana. They also found Bickham had a suspended license,and a prior DUI conviction.

He was supposed to have an ignition interlock device in his truck to measure his blood alcohol level, but did not.

This story was originally published May 22, 2017 at 3:13 PM with the headline "Man sentenced for shooting up Orting house party."