Alleged ‘Jungle’ shooters charged with first-degree murder
Feb 4, 2016, 10:25 AM | Updated: 11:15 am
A shooting at an illegal homeless encampment left two dead and three wounded. Three teens were charged with the murder of those two people Thursday morning. (Jillian Raftery/KIRO Radio)
(Jillian Raftery/KIRO Radio)
The three teens arrested for a shooting that left two dead and three wounded in an illegal Seattle homeless encampment were each charged with two counts of first-degree murder Thursday.
The three suspects — ages 13, 16 and 17 — were also charged with with three counts of first-degree assault, according to King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg.
It's official – all 3 brothers charged w/2 counts of felony murder, assault. pic.twitter.com/Gf4snrVHC8
— Jillian Raftery (@JillianRaftery) February 4, 2016
The two older teens will be tried as adults. The 13-year-old will be charged as a juvenile.
Related: Families of ‘Jungle’ shooting victims might try to put Seattle on the hook
The brothers lived near the site of the shooting, in a tent with their mother under an on-ramp at 4th Avenue South and Edgar Martinez Way, according to court documents. The brothers are suspects in other robberies and homicides in 2015.
According to surveillance video taken on Jan. 30, the two older brothers told a police informant they were the primary shooters — one wielding a .45 caliber handgun and the other using a .22 caliber pistol. On Feb. 1, an informant assisted police and told detectives that the brothers had bragged about the shooting, and allegedly said that they went into The Jungle to recover $500 that one of the shooting victims owed their mother for a drug deal.
Jungle has been a problem for years and remains a “violent, lawless place”, according to @KCProsecutor.
— Jillian Raftery (@JillianRaftery) February 4, 2016
.@KCProsecutor on jungle – time to “shut us down, clean it up”, make sure it can't become the lawless environment it is again.
— Jillian Raftery (@JillianRaftery) February 4, 2016
