KENT, Wash. — Seattle police officers have arrested a second suspect in the fatal armed robbery of a pot shop earlier this month.
Montrell Hatfield, 16, was arrested by Seattle police in Kent on Tuesday.
Hatfield is scheduled to be transported to Tacoma and booked on murder charges.
Seattle police officers arrested the first suspect last week.
Seattle police officers arrested Marshon D. Jones, 15, in Maple Valley on April 11.
He was booked into Remann Hall Juvenile Detention Center on murder charges.
Both suspects were wanted for the homicide of Jordan Brown on March 19 and for at least 10 other robberies at marijuana dispensaries in Pierce and King counties.
Brown was shot and killed during a robbery at the World of Weed in the 3200 block of East Portland Avenue in Tacoma. A memorial with flowers and cards for Brown continues to grow there. The store remains temporarily closed after the shooting.
Police said one of the teens has a prosthetic leg, something that was noticed during the robberies. The suspects usually fire a warning shot into the ceiling.
In February, Hatfield and Jones were arrested in a robbery at a Federal Way pawn shop. The teens were released from jail and placed on house arrest.
Three days before the robbery at the World of Weed, Hatfield and Jones cut off their monitoring devices.
According to the Washington CannaBusiness Association, about 70 robberies have been recorded at marijuana retailers since the start of 2022.
The arrest comes on the same day Governor Jay Inslee and State Attorney General Bob Ferguson wrote an op-ed in the Tacoma News Tribune, titled “SAFE Banking Act is a matter of life and death fo WA pot businesses.”
Kevin Heiderich, the owner of House of Cannabis in Tacoma, commended Inslee and Ferguson. He also has little hope for any solutions in the near future.
“I say to Governor Inslee, welcome to the party of asking the federal government for cannabis legalization. It’s nice to have you aboard and I appreciate your voice and the power that it brings. But politicians are just coming to the party on this,” Heiderich said. “This is something that the federal government has needed to work on for some time. It’s painfully evident to everyone… I fear that (passing the SAFE Banking Act) will take too long. That there will still be negative consequences to the failed war on drugs and the lackadaisical approach to cannabis legalization in the state and federal level.”
King County Councilman Reagan Dunn is proposing a joint task force between the King County Sheriff’s Office and the King County Prosecutor’s Office.
If his fellow councilmembers vote yes, local patrols would increase around King County pot shops.
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