Charges filed after University of Washington shooting outside Milo Yiannopoulos event
Apr 24, 2017, 12:35 PM
Police control crowds at the University of Washington after a shooting amid protests of a speech by Conservative commentator Milo Yiannopoulos in January 2017. (KIRO 7)
(KIRO 7)
The wife of a man originally suspected in a Jan. 20 shooting at the University of Washington campus was charged with felony assault Monday.
Prosecutors say Elizabeth Joy Hokoana, 29, and her husband, Marc K. Hokoana “created a situation designed to allow Elizabeth Hokoana to shoot the victim in the middle of an extremely crowded event under the guise of defending herself or her husband.”
“The degree of planning involved in this crime demonstrates the danger that these defendants present to the community,” Senior Deputy Prosecutor Mary Barbosa wrote in charging documents.
The victim, Joshua Dukes, 34, was shot once in the abdomen outside Kane Hall, where controversial speaker Milo Yiannopoulos was speaking. That also was the day of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, and UW’s Red Square had several hundred people protesting Trump and Yiannopoulos.
Yiannopoulos, a provocative British media personality, worked for Brietbart at the time, but resigned after a video clip surfaced in which Yiannopoulos said sexual relationships between 13-year-old boys and adults can be perfectly consensual.
“The evidence will show that these defendants took a gun into a volatile protest in Red Square, and that Marc Hokoana engaged in several provocative acts, including using pepper spray on the crowd,” King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg said in a statement. “The crowd reacted predictably to being pepper sprayed, but the evidence will show that at the time Elizabeth Hokoana fired her pistol that her husband was not in imminent danger.”
Marc Hokoana was charged with third-degree assault for his role in the incident. His wife was charged with first-degree assault with a firearm enhancement, which can bring a longer sentence.
“Cooperation from witnesses, including several people sending us video of the incident contributed to our detectives determining what happened,” University of Washington Police Chief John Vinson said in a statement.
Both defendants are scheduled for 8:30 a.m. arraignment on May 8 in King County Superior courtroom 1201.
