Man accused of shooting ex through bedroom door in Parkland sentenced on lesser charge
A 34-year-old man who shot his ex-girlfriend through her bedroom door at a Parkland apartment and was accused of attempted murder has been sentenced on a lesser charge.
Richard Dwayne Christensen pleaded guilty June 16 in Pierce County Superior Court to second-degree assault in the December 2021 domestic-violence shooting that left his ex needing multiple surgeries, according to court records, with damage to her ribs, liver and small intestine.
The same day, pro tem Judge Elizabeth Martin sentenced Christensen to seven years in prison, the high end of the standard sentencing range for defendants prosecuted in similar cases.
Prosecutors wrote in court filings that Christensen was allowed to plead guilty to the lesser charge as part of an agreement. He’d previously been charged with attempted murder, first-degree assault, first-degree burglary and first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.
Christensen was arrested in Tacoma a little more than a week after the shooting at an apartment complex in the 700 block of Polk Street. A warrant had been issued for his arrest, and the Sheriff’s Department had issued public bulletins asking for help locating him.
A SWAT team and the FBI’s South Sound Gang Task Force took him into custody. According to court records, Christensen had eight prior felony convictions in Pierce County from 2002 to 2015 for offenses including second-degree robbery, malicious mischief and unlawful possession of a firearm.
In handwritten court filings, Christensen made multiple motions to dismiss the case due to delays and lack of evidence related to him being armed while in the apartment. He claimed that none of the witnesses reported seeing him in possession of a firearm, and the gun alleged to be used in the crime was never found by law enforcement.
When sheriff’s deputies responded to the shooting, they found the victim in a bathroom with her current boyfriend, according to the declaration for determination of probable cause. Both identified Christensen as the gunman, and the woman said the man had beaten her in the past, which was why she left him.
The woman’s roommate told police that Christensen knocked on the apartment door looking for his ex, and while the roommate went to talk to her, Christensen entered uninvited, records state. He reportedly pounded on the woman’s bedroom door, where she and her boyfriend were sleeping.
While the woman went to stand near the door, Christensen ranted, threatened to shoot and then fired through the door, striking her in the right breast.
Deputies later reviewed surveillance footage that showed Christensen arriving at the apartment complex in a white Crown Victoria, entering the victim’s apartment and then leaving a short time later.
