BONNEY LAKE, Wash. — The hunt is on for the driver who fled the scene of a deadly shooting and road rage incident.
When it was over, two men were dead. The victims: a 36-year-old Orting man and, a 46-year-old Sumner man, both shot.
It started with the theft of a trailer, then road rage and shots fired. It came to a crashing end at this intersection with two men dead.
The sound of gunfire pierced the quiet of this Bonney Lake neighborhood on an overcast Sunday morning.
“Heard about 10 gunshots,” recalled resident Jessica Dodge, “10-to-12 gunshots.
It was a little after six a.m. and Dodge was just waking up. So, this is unsettling.
“I hear it was a road rage incident,” she said.
A road rage incident like a few others.
The Pierce County Sheriff’s spokesman said it actually started in the Prairie Ridge neighborhood, a couple of miles east. Three people in the white pickup allegedly stole this trailer. The owner and another man gave chase.
They allegedly tried ramming each other as they drove, firing at each other, too.
Then they collided at Falling Water Boulevard East and Rhodes Lake Road East and opened fire.
“Deputies did find a man in the back seat of the white pickup truck with multiple gunshot wounds,” said Sgt. Darren Moss Jr. “He was immediately transported to the hospital where he later died. And there was a second man that was lying on the sidewalk on the other side of the pickup. He was deceased on the scene.”
The man who died at the hospital was in the white pickup. He was 36-years-old from Orting. The man pronounced at the scene was driving the second vehicle. He was 46 from Sumner.
Three people fled the vehicle. One man was taken into custody pretty quickly. A woman was found on a trail behind Victor Falls Elementary. The third man, the pick-up driver, managed to escape.
It is unlike anything anyone here has seen. “Certainly, no,” said Jessica Dodge.
What does she feel about this?
“A little scared,” she said. “My son lives with me. So, we’re right down the road.”
Deputies believe the man who escaped had also been shot. They said if anyone sees him, don’t approach him. They advise getting a good description and call 911.