Victim of 27-mile-long road-rage incident has died; suspect now charged with murder
The University Place man who was shot in the head during a road-rage incident that began in Tacoma and ended in Kitsap County Monday has died, the Washington State Patrol said.
Washington State Patrol spokesperson Katherine Weatherwax said Patrick H. Weems, 68, died about 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Weems and Mark Keith Smith, 26, of Burien apparently antagonized each other as they were exiting Interstate 5 onto state Route 16 in Tacoma on Monday afternoon. The WSP said it received reports of the pair driving aggressively on Route 16 before the shooting.
After the two drivers made a U-turn onto eastbound Route 16 and pulled over in Gorst, Weems armed himself with a baseball bat and Smith with a gun.
“I later watched cell phone footage showing Smith and Weems standing ‘toe to toe’ in a verbal argument,” WSP investigator Michael Osberg wrote in a report included in Smith’s charging papers. “Smith reaches towards his pocket, pulls the gun out, points it at the victim’s head. Weems grabs Smith’s arm to push the gun away. Smith pulls the gun back to the right, sweeps the gun back forward, pointing the gun directly at Weems and fires a round into his head.”
A Kitsap County sheriff’s deputy later found the Toyota and Smith on Southwest Lake Flora Road where he had allegedly hidden a 9 mm pistol in nearby foliage.
Weems was transported to St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma in critical condition.
Smith was charged with first degree assault by the Kitsap County Prosecutor’s office but were amended to second-degree murder on Wednesday.
This story was originally published July 26, 2023 at 1:47 PM.
