He was asked to call it a night. Instead he opened fire and now is charged with murder
A drunken man fatally shot a stranger outside a Graham bar after the stranger suggested he and his friend stop punching a truck and call it a night, according to court documents.
Pierce County prosecutors on Monday charged Alec Ausbun, 24, with first-degree murder for Sunday’s early-morning shooting in the 9800 block of 224th Street East. He was scheduled to be arraigned Monday afternoon.
The 26-year-old victim has not been publicly identified. He died of a gunshot wound to the head, records say.
Witnesses said Ausbun and a friend showed up just before closing time “highly intoxicated” and “looking for a fight,” prosecutors wrote in charging papers.
After about 20 minutes, the bar manager told the men to close their tab and leave. She then went outside to warm up her vehicle.
Ausbun and his friend came outside about 1:50 a.m. and began fighting over who was going to drive home the truck, which was haphazardly parked across three stalls.
Ausburn’s friend allegedly became enraged and started punching his own truck.
The bar manager, as well the victim and a friend, all told Ausbun and his drinking partner to quit causing a scene and go home.
“The defendant ‘took offense’ to this and approached the victim,” according to charging papers.
Ausbun and the victim argued, then both walked back toward their friends. Ausbun grabbed a gun out of the truck and walked up to the victim’s group. As the victim ran away, Ausbun fired at least three times from about 180 feet away.
The victim’s friend and bar manager did not immediately realize he had been shot.
One of them took pictures of the truck Ausbun and his friend arrived in, then began picking up shell casings from Ausbun’s gun. Ausbun tackled him and told him not to do that, then took an ATV out of the bed of the truck and rode away.
After a few minutes, the bar manager found the victim unconscious in the back alley. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Witnesses say Ausbun and his friend were seen looking for something in a nearby wooded area after the shooting — detectives believe he initially tossed the murder weapon — then again tried to ride away.
As sheriff’s deputies arrived on scene, Ausbun allegedly jumped a curb and rode down a small embankment. His getaway was stalled by a creek and a K-9 track helped deputies find and arrest Ausbun.
He later directed detectives to the gun used in the shooting, which was in the brush a few feet from where he was taken into custody.
Ausbun declined to speak with investigators about the shooting. His friend told detectives he did not remember what happened that night.
This story was originally published March 7, 2022 at 11:45 AM.
