Two Des Moines men – who are brothers in law – were being held at the county jail in Kent Tuesday on $200,000 bail each following a shootout early Saturday in downtown Renton that left five people injured, including one critically.
They are being held for investigation of assault; charges are to be filed by Thursday. The two appeared Monday in court at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent.
The Renton Reporter will name the two men when they are charged. They live in the same house in Des Moines.
The critically injured man was shot several times in the leg; a tourniquet kept him from bleeding to death, according to a court document. His condition at Harborview Medical Center was upgraded to satisfactory.
Three other shooting victims also were hospitalized; their conditions weren’t available.
Renton Police investigators found 40 9 mm shell casings in the roadway and sidewalk area in front of Pounders Bar and Grill, 221 Main Ave. S., following the shootout at about 1:30 a.m.
Investigators determined the bullets were fired by three guns. One handgun was recovered.
A Renton Police officer heard loud arguing outside Pounders Bar as he drove by at about 1:30 a.m. When he looked back at the area, he heard the sounds of rapid-fire gunshots, according to Renton Police Commander Paul Cline.
A bartender at Pounders described to police what led up to the shooting.
The bartender told officers that two groups of patrons were at the bar, one primarily Samoan and one mostly darker-skinned Asians. They argued just inside the door, then walked outside.
Sensing trouble, the bartender, joined by the bar’s bouncer, walked outside. The two groups were fighting in the middle of Main. As two employees tried to separate the two groups, at least three people, some from each group, pulled out handguns and started firing at each other, according to a court document.
The bartender saw an Asian male firing shots from the parking lot across Main from Pounders. The bartender ran inside to call 911.
Another witness told investigators about seeing the 29-year-old suspect waiting on Main outside the bar with a woman. The woman with him asked the suspect whether he still had “it,” and the suspect repeatedly told her, “Don’t worry about it. Don’t worry about it. I’m out of ammo. I’m going to get more.” The witness pointed out the suspect to an officer as he disappeared around the corner.
The suspect was about to leave in a GMC Yukon when he was stopped by a Renton officer. A cocked semi-automatic pistol was laying on the pavement where the Yukon had been parked.
Another witness identified the 29-year-old as one of the shooters.
The second suspect, a 27-year-old man, was tracked by a K9 unit to the Cedar River near Interstate 405 after he had fled the scene.
He denied that he was in the bar that night, according to the court document. He claimed he had just walked to the Maple Valley Highway from his girlfriend’s house in the Highlands. But, despite the rainstorm overnight, he was dry. Officers found cocaine and a single loaded 9 mm round in his pocket after he was arrested.
According to the court document, he admitted to generally carrying a 9 mm handgun. One of the bar’s employees recognized the suspect as being in the bar but couldn’t positively identity him as one of the shooters, according to the court document.
The investigation is ongoing and detectives are interested in contacting anyone who might have been in the area at the time of the shooting and witnessed either the argument or the actual shooting, according to Cline.
Anyone with information about this incident can contact the Renton Police Department at 425-430-7500.
Pounders has been the scene of at least one other shooting.
A 19-year-old man was shot and killed and another man wounded in a shooting outside the bar at about 2 a.m. on Nov. 5, 2006. William Adam Gray was charged with second-degree murder in that case. He was also charged with first-degree assault.
Gray was on Renton’s Most Wanted list. He was arrested last January in Federal Way by a fugitive task force. The Renton Police Department had been aggressively pursuing Gray, working with federal authorities and using social-networking sites, such as MySpace, to find him.
