The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office is investigating after a 26-year-old Tumwater man was killed in what deputies are calling a “seemingly unprovoked” shooting at a grocery store parking lot Saturday night.
According to the sheriff’s office, deputies were called at about 9:45 p.m. to a complaint of shots heard in the area of the 1100 block of Horne Street Northeast in Olympia.
Deputies checked the area but did not find the source of the gunshots, but they did see a man walking in the area shortly after the complaint.
At about 10:15 p.m., a man called 911 from the nearby WinCo parking lot and said he had returned to his car after shopping in the store to find his brother dead from multiple gunshot wounds.
At 10:30 p.m., a Lacey Police Department officer found the suspected shooter walking in the 6500 block of Martin Way East. He was arrested without incident.
Detectives obtained surveillance footage that showed the suspect, a 23-year-old Olympia man, in the WinCo parking lot at the time of the shooting. Witnesses on Horne Street also placed the suspect in the area at the time of the shooting.
A search warrant was obtained for the suspect’s backpack, which turned up a pistol and ammunition.
The sheriff’s office said it appears that the victim and suspect had no connection.
The suspect was booked into the Thurston County Jail for investigation of first-degree murder.