Lakewood drive-by: 60 shots, four victims — and a new twist in the case
A man has been arrested for second-degree murder in connection to a 2024 drive-by Lakewood shooting that left one man dead and three others injured.
The man, 21-year-old Alan Viramontes-Rivera, was charged Wednesday with one count of second-degree murder, three counts of first-degree assault, one count of drive-by shooting and conspiracy to commit first-degree assault. His bail is set at $1 million.
Viramontes-Rivera is the sixth person to be charged in connection to the shooting. The other suspects are five people in a black Silverado involved in the main shooting: father/son duo Julio and Matthew Lucas; Juan Angel Lucas Gonzalez, a relative; Eduardo Mendoza Molinero; and Isaac Esquivel-Villalbazo.
On Aug. 25 at 7:30 p.m., police responded to a call of multiple people shooting at each other on the corner of 33rd Avenue South and 82nd Street South in Lakewood near Glen Mar Mobile Estates. About 60 shots were fired, according to court documents, and multiple victims were hit.
One man — 33-year-old Jose Lemus Castillo — was transported to Madigan Army Medical Center with gunshot wounds. He later died at the hospital.
Three other gunshot victims were treated for non-life-threatening injuries, according to court documents.
According to court documents, Viramontes-Rivera was one of three people in a white Camry that drove by the victims’ van a few minutes before the shooting started. Viramontes-Rivera then allegedly called the five other suspects in the Silverado and let them know the victims’ locations.
Shortly after the main shooting, the white Camry went to the scene and fired “several rounds at the victims in the van” then fled, according to court documents. Viramontes-Rivera was one of the occupants in the Camry, but documents don’t say if he fired at the victims.
A bench warrant for Viramontes-Rivera’s arrest was issued on June 24, according to jail records, and he was booked into Pierce County Jail at 2:12 p.m. on June 30.
What happened on Aug. 25, 2024?
According to court documents, several witnesses told police the victims were in a 2003 white Toyota Sienna van, when a white Camry pulled up. One of the Camry’s occupants told one of the suspects in the Silverado that a victim had noticed the Camry, hopped out of the van “and started banging" on the door.
Surveillance footage later showed the van and Camry passing each other on 83rd Avenue South at about 7:26 p.m., though some of the interaction wasn’t visible on camera because of apartments blocking the roadway, according to documents.
Witnesses told police that a “newer black Chevrolet Silverado with black rims” engaged in a shooting with the van at about 7:30 p.m. One witness told police that at least four men left the Silverado and fired at the van, according to court documents.
The Silverado then fled westbound toward South Tacoma Way after the shooting, documents say.
The white Camry then returned to the scene after the Silverado fled, according to documents, with a victim telling police there were three men, between 20 and 30 years old, inside the Camry. Occupants inside the Camry fired shots at the victims in the van, then fled eastbound on 84th Street South.
About 60 people in the area were frantically yelling and pointing when police arrived. The victims’ van had crashed into the guard rail and was “riddled with bullet holes,” prosecutors wrote.
Castillo was found on the ground, documents say. He received a gunshot wound to the left side of his back, which struck his kidney and lung, as well another gunshot wound where the bullet “did not fully penetrate his body.”
Another man was shot in the left arm, documents say, while a third man was found at the scene bleeding from a wound to his head. A fourth victim, a woman, was shot in the back and walked away from the scene. Officers later found her and confirmed she had been shot.
The three other victims survived, documents say.
What happened after the shooting?
Police found surveillance footage of the black Silverado arriving at a Home Depot in Tacoma at 4602 Center St., according to court documents. The Silverado was at Home Depot from 7:36 p.m. to 10:10 p.m.
In the footage at Home Depot, the Silverado is shown smoking, possible from one of the victims shooting at it, and four people are seen loitering around it, according to the documents.
Police later used witness statements, surveillance footage and phone activity to identify two of the shooting suspects as Julio and Matthew Lucas, documents say.
Julio and Matthew Lucas were arrested in Arlington on Sept. 19, 2024, documents say.
Police then used “cellular tower data, cellphone data from multiple devices, surveillance footage from Home Depot and other locations, witness statements and other evidence” to track down two other suspects in the Silverado: Lucas-Gonzalez and Molinero. They later found the fifth suspect in the Silverado, Esquivel-Villalbazo.
The Silverado suspects have all been arraigned:
- Julio Lucas was arraigned on Sept. 20, 2024 for first-degree murder, three counts of attempted first-degree murder, drive-by shooting and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. His bail was $3 million.
- Matthew Lucas was also arraigned on Sept. 20, 2024 on the same charges as his father. His bail was $2 million.
- Molinero was arraigned on Sept. 23, 2024 on the same charges, plus an additional charge for first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm. His bail was $2 million.
- Lucas-Gonzalez was arraigned on Oct. 7, 2024 on the same charges.
- Esquivel-Villalbazo was arraigned on Jan. 30, 2025 on the same charges.
Viramontes-Rivera’s involvement
On Sept. 26, 2024, Molinero gave an interview with police where he identified Viramontes-Rivera as one of the people in the white Camry.
“Molinero was questioned about whether another vehicle was involved [besides the Silverado]. He admitted that a white Camry was involved and that those in the white Camry had called the occupants of the Silverado to tell them the location of the victims,” documents say.
Molinero identified two of the men in the Camry as “Alan” and “Christian,” documents say.
“Molinero admitted that both ‘Alan’ and ‘Christian’ knew the occupants of the Silverado were looking for the van,” documents say. “Molinero admitted that he did not see them at the shooting. Molinero admitted that he didn’t know which individual inside the Camry had shot, and he had only heard that one of them had shot a few days after the murder.”
Police then showed Molinero a photo of Viramontes-Rivera, documents say, and Molinero confirmed to them that Viramontes-Rivera was “Alan.”
