He fatally shot a man he said had been harassing his family. Here’s what a jury decided
A 47-year-old man accused of murder for fatally shooting a repeat trespasser near his Parkland home acted out of self defense, a jury trial found earlier this month. According to court records, the victim harassed the defendant and his family for more than a year before the shooting.
Kenneth Salazar was acquitted of two counts of second-degree murder as well as first- and second-degree manslaughter Feb. 1 following a two-week trial in Pierce County Superior Court.
The jury deliberated for less than an hour before reaching a verdict. Salazar had been charged with killing Eleuterio Castellan Salinas on Feb. 28, 2021 during a late-night confrontation in a vacant lot next to Salazar’s home.
An instant before the shooting, Salinas threw a “Big Gulp” cup filled with urine at Salazar and his brother, who filmed most of the incident, records state. The brother later told law enforcement he thought Salinas was reaching for a gun, but a weapon wasn’t found on the victim.
The fatal encounter followed more than 18 months of Salinas, 30, harassing and stalking Kenneth Salazar and his family, according to court filings from the defense. The family lived in a rented home in the 13400 block of C Street South, just off Pacific Avenue.
Salinas allegedly drove by at random times to shine his headlights into their home, flip them off on their security cameras, leave trash or do doughnuts in the nearby parking lot. He was reportedly seen holding a firearm and a knife on several occasions.
‘Pattern of harassment’
The Salazars reported the trespassing, harassment and vandalism to law enforcement 17 times, records state, but Salinas, and sometimes his girlfriend, continued to return.
Erin White, a defense attorney for Salazar from South Sound Law Group, said the family did what they were supposed to do — continue to call the police — but nothing changed. She said she thought that resonated with the jury. White also pointed to one of the first reported incidents with Salinas in May 2020 as particularly convincing. According to court records, Salinas was trespassing, and, when Kenneth Salazar asked him to leave, the man pointed to his waistband and said he would have shot Salazar if he didn’t have his kids with him.
“The pattern of harassment, stalking, the fact that there was a threat to kill and that there was kind of that condition precedent, ‘If I didn’t have my kids with me then I’d shoot you right now EXPLETIVE,’” White told The News Tribune. “Well the next time that they came face to face was in February 2021.”
The lead deputy prosecutor was not available to respond to a request for comment. Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office spokesperson, Adam Faber, sent a statement to The News Tribune focused on the moment just before the shooting when Salinas threw a cup of urine at the Salazar brothers. Faber said prosecutors viewed the throw as a provocation but not a threat that would justify using deadly force.
“These facts were thoroughly aired to a jury, who unanimously found beyond a reasonable doubt that this was a case of self-defense,” Faber wrote in an email. “We respect the work and verdict of the jury in this case.”
The lot Salinas was trespassing in belonged to the Dryer Masonic Center, which wasn’t Salazar’s property. According to court documents, he and his brother, Kevin, had specific permission from the temple to run off trespassers. Defense attorneys for Salazar wrote in court filings that the center’s board of directors voted to allow the brothers to act as agents of the Masonic Temple and gave them keys to the property.
Salinas, 30, often parked in the vacant lot, but court documents show his harassment centered on the Salazar family who lived next door.
Victim’s ex said he was abusive and territorial
Tensions appeared to heat up in the months preceding the shooting. In January 2021, Salinas allegedly spray-painted “EXPLETIVE you EXPLETIVE” on the family’s garage after his girlfriend was kicked out of the parking lot. Two weeks before the fatal encounter, Salinas allegedly screamed and whistled at a security camera and made specific threats to kill the Salazars.
“Perhaps the most terrifying part of all of this is that the Salazars do not understand why this man continued to harass and stalk them,” defense attorneys wrote in a trial memorandum. “They do not know him personally, other than the 30+ times he’s come to their home to harass them.”
Salinas didn’t have any felony convictions in Pierce County, court records show, but a woman who has children in common with Salinas was granted a temporary protection order against him in 2018 for domestic violence. Defense attorneys for Salazar spoke with the woman, who said she’d known Salinas for more than a decade and had met him in California. According to court documents, she said Salinas was a gang member who was abusive and territorial.
The defendant also didn’t have prior felony convictions in the county, although charging documents in this case claimed Salazar had a prior conviction out of Ohio in 1999 for robbery, aggravated burglary and kidnapping. A defense attorney disputed that at Salazar’s arraignment, stating that her client had never been to Ohio and that his criminal history included a DUI.
