First Appearance for Man Following 3rd and Pike Shooting

This afternoon the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was in court to argue that a man police said was arrested with an illegally possessed handgun and individually packaged street drugs is a danger to the community. We asked a judge to hold him on $75,000 bail.

We also argued that the suspect is unlikely to return to court if released. A judge set bail at $50,000 and found probable cause for a unlawful gun possession and a drug violation.

As a reminder, drug possession cases — people using drugs on Seattle streets — are not referred to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Those are referred by police to the Seattle City Attorney’s Office.

The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office files drug dealing cases when those are a) referred to us by police and b) when we believe we can prove them beyond a reasonable doubt (which is the statewide requirement for filing a case.)

Our office is filing drug dealing cases each week — primarily involving heroin, meth, or fentanyl — and many of those cases involve guns. In 2021, we filed 125 of those cases.

The last case referred to our office involving this individual was a 2015 case. He was charged by our office, convicted of second-degree assault, and sentenced to 85 months (case 15–1–0205–4).