Dori: ‘Senseless’ Seattle road-rage incident leads to deadly shooting while victim’s friends grieve

After a little over a month, charges have been filed by the King County Prosecutor’s Office against the man who allegedly killed Bob Jensen.

What started as a routine mid-morning trip to Costco to get his morning coffee ended in death for a Seattle man 32 days ago, and now Jensen’s friends were left to ask why it took so long for the suspect to be arrested.

Seattle Police have confirmed that Jensen, 68, was shot around 10:30 a.m., July 21 at the 4400 block of 4th Ave S during a road rage incident. The King County Medical Examiner’s Office has since ruled Jensen’s death a homicide, but did not file any charges for more than a month.

Jensen’s friend, Mark Fasano, told The Dori Monson Show that his best friend was not the kind of person to initiate an argument.

The police report, witness accounts, and a video from the scene appear to show a driver, 38, refusing to allow Jensen to zipper-merge on the roadway.

“The guy would not let Bob in,” Fasano described to Dori’s listeners. “The guy got behind him . . . and keeping flipping him off and brake-checking him.”

When both vehicles stopped shortly after in the Industrial District, an unarmed Jensen left his vehicle and approached the other driver. That driver appears to have fired one shot at Jensen, who later died at Harborview Medical Center from a wound to the abdomen.

A volunteer at Kent’s Hydroplane & Raceboat Museum for 30 years, Jensen was known to watch out for his 102-year-old neighbor and rebuild houses for others “out of the goodness of his heart,” Fasano said.

Friends mourned their friend and celebrated his love for fast boats by attending the Tri-Cities Hydro Races over the weekend “with a void in our hearts.” The friends remain dismayed by the judicial system that allows a “senseless murder where an armed man can shoot an unarmed man with no charges.”

Part of the reason Fasano said he “can’t process” his friend’s killing is because Jepsen taught Fasano’s 18-year-old son how to drive.

“I could not believe he (Jensen) got out of his car. He would say, ‘there’s a crazy at every stoplight. Don’t ever get pissed off. Just let it go.’ And so, it’s not like him to do anything like this,” Fasano said.

The shooter, Fasano told Dori, is claiming self-defense but Fasano believes legal gun carriers need to be held to a “higher standard.”

“Somebody needs to be held accountable,” Fasano said. “If you’re carrying a gun, baiting somebody to get out of their car, brake-checking them and flipping them off is not that higher standard.”

While the investigation continues, police encourage anyone with information to email SPD_homicide@seattle.gov or call the Violent Crimes Tip Line at 206-233-5000.

Update Aug. 22: King County Prosecutor’s Office has charged Angel Valderrama with one count of murder in the second degree.

Listen to Dori Monson weekday afternoons from noon – 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.