New details of Skyway shooting that leads to citizen’s arrest
Aug 8, 2011, 5:53 PM | Updated: Oct 10, 2012, 7:28 am
Citizen arrests can be dangerous, but in this particular case, everything turned out alright when a man was “Johnny-on-the-spot” at the right place, at the right time, with a pair of handcuffs.
It started on Saturday, when an argument between two men led to a shooting near the U.S. Bank in the 7600 block of 126th St. in Skyway.
According to Sgt. John Urquhart with the King County Sheriff’s Office, the altercation was over the sale of, what one of the men considered to be, inadequate heroin.
A few days before, one of the men had sold the other man heroin, but when the quality of the heroin wasn’t up to the buyer’s expectations, he went looking for the seller. The buyer caught up with the seller in the parking lot of the U.S. Bank on Saturday.
The seller and the buyer each pulled out guns on the other, but the buyer was quicker to the draw than the seller. The buyer fired off 11 rounds, four shots hit the seller.
While the altercation occurred, one man, who happened to be legally armed with his own weapon and a set of handcuffs, was at the bank’s ATM. When he saw the man who fired the shots running around the corner, he pulled out his gun, and took the man into custody.
“The shooter was on the lamb, he was headed out of the area quick like a bunny, but [the citizen] intervened and took the guy into custody, and for that we thank him,” Urquhart says.
“Anytime you make that kind of decision, you’ve got to know what you’re doing,” added Urquhart.
The citizen making the arrest did fire off one shot, but missed. Urquhart says the citizen handled the situation within the legal process, although, it’s not technically called a “citizens’ arrest.”
“It’s an actual legal process, in the state of Washington, for felonies only, not for misdemeanors,”
Urquhart says.
While Urquhart stresses that these sort of situations are dangerous, and you have to be able to think things through before you intervene, “This has a good ending, no one got hurt.”
The seller was treated at Harborview Medical Center for four gunshot wounds and is expected to be fine. The shooter was taken into custody, and, according to Urquhart, the citizen who made the arrest has gotten plenty of pats on the back.
