Man pleads guilty to carjacking family at gunpoint outside Lakewood convenience store
A man accused of pointing a rifle at a family of four while carjacking their Honda Accord outside a convenience store in Lakewood pleaded guilty Monday in Pierce County Superior Court.
Brandon McGowan, 37, pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery and first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm. Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson Adam Faber said the recommended sentence is 15 years in prison with 18 months of community custody.
McGowan is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 14.
McGowan has twice been convicted of robbery in Pierce County, once for first-degree robbery in 2004 and for second-degree robbery in 2015. He was also convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm in 2010.
According to charging papers, McGowan was on community custody for his last robbery conviction in Pierce County when he was detained June 26, 2019. Investigators located the stolen Honda, the rifle allegedly used in the robbery and McGowan in Federal Way just a day after an alert was issued for the stolen car.
On June 25, a man, his wife and their two children, ages 3 and 13, went to a convenience store on South Tacoma Way in Lakewood. While the man went to get coffee from the store, prosecutors said McGowan was waiting outside, rifle in hand.
When man sat back in his car, McGowan approached and pointed his gun at him, ordering him out of the car, according to the declaration for determination of probable cause.
Prosecutors said the man hesitated to comply because he was scared for his two children still in the car and tried to tell McGowan about them. According to the probable cause statement, McGowan hit the man in the face with the butt of his rifle. While the man was being assaulted, the rest of his family got out of the car.
Then, prosecutors said, McGowan ripped a gold necklace off the man’s neck and fled in the car.
The man and a witness told police the man who stole the Honda was wearing a black face mask during the encounter.
According to a Lakewood Police Report included in a motion filed in this case, McGowan was arrested by Federal Way police June 26 after someone reported to police their roommate was “acting oddly” in their backyard and armed with a rifle.
Police negotiated with the man, later identified as McGowan, for an hour and a half before he surrendered. After he was taken into custody, police learned the vehicle he arrived in was stolen, and identified it as the Honda taken in the robbery.
Police found a black face mask on the ground outside the driver’s door. The rifle McGowan was armed with was a .303 caliber prosecutors said was consistent with a rifle round found at the robbery scene.
