Drive-by shooting in Lakewood critically injured man talking to gunman’s girlfriend
An 18-year-old who caught his girlfriend talking to her ex in a Lakewood park drove after the man and shot him, court documents say.
The drive-by shooting took place just before 9 a.m. Sunday.
The victim called 911 and “reported that he had been shot and that he believed he was going to die,” according to charging papers.
Police responded and found the man unconscious in the driver’s seat of his vehicle, parked in the driveway of his home.
Officers wrapped a tourniquet around a gunshot wound in the victim’s leg.
He was taken to an area hospital and is expected to survive.
Police noted gunfire damage to the driver’s side door and bumper of the victim’s car.
He told detectives he went to a local park because his ex-girlfriend called and needed somebody to speak with.
While they were talking, her boyfriend showed up and the two men argued.
“At some point, the male told (the victim) that he needed to leave or he would get shot,” prosecutors wrote in charging papers.
The victim left but noticed the other man was following him.
The girl’s boyfriend allegedly shot twice at the victim’s car then drove off.
The victim managed to drive home before calling 911.
Police arrested the suspected gunman later that day, who claimed the victim had assaulted his girlfriend in the past and taunted him about having sex with her when he showed up at the park.
He “decided to shoot him out of anger,” records say, but the gunman said he “felt bad about what he had done.”
On Monday, he pleaded not guilty to attempted first-degree murder and drive-by shooting.
Prosecutors asked him to be held on $500,000 bail “due to the seriousness of the charges and the allegations of extreme violence,” records say.
Instead, Pierce County Superior Court Commissioner Craig Adams ordered him jailed in lieu of $250,000.
This story was originally published March 31, 2020 at 9:47 AM.
