South Hill man arrested in shooting of his mother’s boyfriend to be held pending charges

A 20-year-old man arrested in a South Hill shooting has been ordered held in the Pierce County Jail pending a charging decision expected to come later this week.

Chief criminal deputy prosecutor Jim Schacht said in Superior Court on Monday that the 34-year-old victim, who is being treated for multiple gunshot wounds, remains in critical condition. Schacht said the victim is not expected to survive, and the defendant might face a murder charge instead of attempted murder.

The News Tribune generally does not name criminal defendants until they have been formally charged.

Commissioner Sabrina Ahrens set bail at $1 million for the 20-year-old Monday afternoon.

According to previous News Tribune reports, witnesses saw the victim on a bicycle being chased by two vehicles around 8 a.m. Friday and heard gunshots. Deputies found the victim in the 12000 block of 132nd Street East.

The victim is the on-again, off-again boyfriend of the 20-year-old’s mother, according to the defendant’s attorney, Bryan Hershman, and sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer. Troyer said law enforcement had been called to the defendant’s house multiple times.

The man’s mother told law enforcement the victim came to the house in the 13100 block of 122nd Street East demanding a cell phone, according to court records. She told the man to leave and he left on a bicycle.

Another person at the house told law enforcement the 20-year-old left after hearing the victim and his mother arguing, the records show.

The witness said the victim jumped on the woman’s vehicle with a brick but left on the bike after the 20-year-old returned in a car. The witness, the defendant and another person got in the vehicle and pursued the victim, records show

The witness said the victim went through a hole in a fence on the bike and the defendant fire two shots and followed in the vehicle. The witness said he later heard two more shots.

Law enforcement reported finding bullet damage in a fence and identified other residences in the area that would have been hit.

Following the events, the 20-year-old turned himself in at the South Hill precinct. He has previously been convicted of residential burglary, second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm, first-degree theft and theft of a firearm in 2014, court records show.

Hershman said in court Monday the victim broke into the mother’s house the morning of the shooting, is an abusive person and that multiple protection orders had been filed. The mother was protected by other people in the house, Hershman said.

Hershman said the defendant has had a clean record since he was 15, is the father of a 2-year-old daughter and works two jobs.

Hershman also said the man spoke with his father and, after much reflection, surrendered to law enforcement.

This story was originally published August 26, 2019 at 4:04 PM.