An Auburn man suspected of shooting two brothers, killing one and leaving the other fighting for his life in a Seattle Hospital was to be released from jail Wednesday pending further investigation, according to the King County Prosecutor’s office.

“We need more time to review the case and conduct additional interviews,” Dan Donohoe, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, said Wednesday afternoon of 18-year-old Olenthis D. Woods.

Wednesday afternoon marked the end of the 72-hour period the state allows authorities to hold suspects without filing charges.

Asked if authorities were concerned about retaliation against Woods, Donohoe said only, “He will be released pending the investigation.”

Woods made his first appearance in court Tuesday afternoon at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent. District Court Judge Corinna Harn had set bail at $1 million.

King County Prosecutors have identified the dead man as Shennon Shelton, a popular sports coach at Cascade Middle School, and his brother as Gaston Shelton. Both victims, of Samoan descent, are brothers of Auburn High standout lineman Danny Shelton, a blue-chip football recruit recently signed by the University of Washington.

Police booked Woods into jail after he received treatment for non-life threatening injuries.

Auburn police are trying to piece together what happened and how the Shelton brothers were pulled into a confrontation that had already ended and did not involve them.

Auburn Police Commander Mike Hirman offered this sketch of what police have learned so far.

“There were two incidents, the first one involved individuals from two families that were fighting about something that had do with their children, but I will not get into details on that,” Hirman said. “Individuals from two families got into a fight a block or two from where the shooting would take place.

“Somehow the confrontation became directed at an individual involved in that fight or someone passing by, and it moved to this duplex,” Hirman said.

According to the statement of probable cause written by Auburn police and submitted to King County Prosecutors, Woods saw several Samoan men approaching his house and went inside to get his handgun. He released the safety and cocked back the hammer. He heard the men outside yelling for him to come out, and he began walking toward the front door with his loaded gun in front of him.

Police: Front door kicked in

According to the police statement, the Shelton brothers kicked in the front door. Seeing them standing there, Woods yelled at them to get out of his house, and they did. Woods then noticed that his mother was standing outside by Gaston Shelton, and that Shennon Shelton had walked away from the doorway to a place where Woods could no longer see him.

“As Woods continued to advance toward the front door,” the statement continues, “Gaston took a half-step toward Woods. Woods shot him in the chest and he fell to the ground outside the front door. Woods continued to advance toward his mother. As Woods exited the front door, Shennon tried to grab Woods from his side. Woods shot Shennon on the right side of his neck.”

Responding at about 5 p.m. to a report of shots fired in the 3400 block of C Court Southeast, police found the men bleeding from their wounds. Medics treated and transported them to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where at 6:08 p.m., doctors pronounced Shennon Shelton dead. Gaston underwent emergency surgery for the bullet wound in his chest.

King County Prosecutor Spokesman Ian Goodhew said that the suspected gunman told police he had shot at the two men in self-defense.

According to the police statement, Woods added that he “would have shot more Samoans,” but his gun jammed.

Woods also told authorities that the fight had started between his little brother and a neighborhood girl but escalated into a melee involving the victim’s family.

The Auburn Police Department Major Crimes Unit and the Crime Scene Response Team continue to investigate the incident. Hirman said police have recovered a 9-mm handgun, which they believe to be the weapon involved in the shooting.

Woods relatives at the bail hearing insisted that he responded in self-defense after the Shelton brothers kicked down his door.

“There was a fight, but it had nothing to do with the Samoans,” Woods’ aunt, Elizabeth Rhone, said of the Shelton brothers. “It was a fight between two black families. Basically, a girl hit my nephew, and he slapped back. The Samoans said, ‘Hold on, don’t be hitting no females.’ At that point, the fight’s over. Everybody goes home. But the Samoan went home and told his brother that he got jumped, so that’s why they came flying around the corner like that. Everybody’s sitting in the cul-de-sac, fight’s over, and somebody says, ‘Samoans are coming.’ And they look up and see Samoans coming, and everybody runs. Then Samoans came up and kicked the door in.

“It’s tragedy for both families,” Rhone added. “Nobody won, nobody won, know what I mean? Nobody won. If the Samoans had come around and asked questions first, this never would have happened.”