Men at Wenatchee party injured by shotgun blast

WENATCHEE, Wash. — Two men at a party in the backyard of a Wenatchee home were injured by shotgun pellets fired from a neighboring house.

On Saturday at about 7:30 p.m., Chelan County deputies were called to a report of a shooting. The victims, two men, were attending a prom party and were sitting in the backyard when both were struck by shotgun pellets.

One man was taken to Central Washington Hospital where he was treated and released for pellet wounds to his face.  The second victim had a minor injury to his arm.

With help from Wenatchee Police Department, deputies attempted to call out anyone inside the home where the shotgun blast was fired.  No one responded, and deputies and officers went inside in case someone inside was hurt.

No other victims were inside, but officers said they found a 20-gauge shotgun and evidence of a shotgun blast traveling from the inside to the outside of the home.  The shotgun blast created a golf ball-sized hole in the exterior of the house in the direction of the neighboring property where the party was happening.

Deputies spoke with another neighbor who said she was the caretaker of the abandoned house where the shot was fired.  She told police she tried to remove some people who were no longer meeting their rental agreement requirements and there was an argument over property left inside the home.

The woman told police that one of the former tenants broke into the empty house, so she went to confront them with a shotgun. She said while inside the home, the former tenant made an aggressive move toward her, so she fired a round from the shotgun.

Police said the round fired was the one that struck the two victims at the neighboring property.  The former tenant the caretaker had been talking to fled before officers arrived and has not been found.

The caretaker, a 33-year-old Wenatchee woman, was booked into Chelan County Regional Justice Center on two counts of reckless endangerment for firing the shotgun round and striking the unintended victims next door.

Cox Media Group