A 17-year-old Renton youth and a Seattle teenager were charged Tuesday with first-degree assault in a shooting near downtown Renton early Sunday that almost killed a 39-year-old man.
The Des Moines man was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with a gunshot wound to his back.
“He initially died but was brought back to life by medical staff,” according to charging documents. Thursday, he was in serious condition in the intensive-care unit at Harborview.
The Renton youth, Jalen Christopher Day, though only 17, is being charged as an adult.
Day is in the jail at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent on $250,000 bail. The Seattle teen charged, 18-year-old Cameron J. Ellis, is still at large. There is a $250,000 warrant for his arrest.
An arraignment is set for Aug. 2 at the justice center. The standard sentencing range for first-degree assault involving a firearm is 12 3/4 years and 15 1/2 years, according to Dan Donohoe, a spokesman for the King County Prosecutor’s Office.
Renton Police officers talked to Day and Ellis after tracking them separately with K-9 units; both matched descriptions given by witnesses to the shooting. The teens are black.
Both initially denied any involvement in the shooting.
Under questioning, Ellis said, “All right, I ain’t going down for this.” He told officers he was present at the shooting and that his friend “Jalen” shot the people, according to documents.
When told Ellis had implicated him in the shooting, Day “bowed his head and began to cry” and agreed to show police where he had tossed the gun, according to charging documents. A .38-caliber Smith and Wesson handgun with six spent rounds was found in the grass at a nearby apartment complex.
Day told officers he and Ellis were walking behind a group of Asian men, talking loudly. Ellis asked for the gun Day was carrying. Day handed him the gun and Ellis fired a couple shots at the men. Ellis handed the gun back to Day, who fired more shots toward the crowd, according to charging papers.
Day told officers he didn’t mean to hit anyone; he just wanted to scare them. He bought the gun two months ago for $200 from someone he didn’t know.
Charging papers tell how the victim was walking on Langston Road Southwest near Southwest Third Street at about 3:30 a.m. Sunday with four friends after leaving a nearby casino. Day and Ellis asked for money; the victim told them they didn’t “even have a penny.”
They kept walking but heard gunshots. A witness in the group saw Ellis shooting into the air, according to charging papers. The witness ran, falling on a grassy area. A bullet hit in front of him.
As a juvenile, Day came before the Juvenile Court Community Accountability Board, which arranges for alternatives to charges a youth might face otherwise. The diversion was for fourth-degree assault in 2007 marijuana possession in 2005, according to charging papers.
Ellis has two convictions, one in 2009 and one in 2010, for possessing marijuana as a minor, according to prosecutors.
In requesting $250,000 bail, prosecutors wrote that the defendants “are unlikely to come to court due to the serious nature of this offense and the considerable amount of incarceration time they are facing.
“Further, they are likely to commit further acts of violence if free in the community in light of the facts here, where they opened fire on a group of unarmed men, who were strangers to the defendants in an unprovoked attack.
