An Auburn youth was arraigned July 20 and pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree assault for his alleged involvement in a drive-by shooting on July 3 in Auburn that injured two women.
Gustavo Gallegos, 17, 1702 33rd Place S.E., is charged as an adult. The defendant’s 15-year-old brother has been charged as an accomplice in Juvenile Court with two counts of first-degree assault. He will have a hearing in a few weeks when a judge will decide if he should be tried as an adult.
Gustavo Gallegos is scheduled for a case setting hearing at 1 p.m. Aug. 17 in courtroom GB of the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent.
Police say a dispute between two females at a party earlier that night in the Lake Tapps area might have prompted gang-related threats that led to the shootings.
According to charging papers, one of the women involved in the verbal altercation then called up her boyfriend, 17, to advise him of what had happened. The young woman and her boyfriend, along with five other people, then piled into a Honda and drove to the Gallegos house.
As the boyfriend walked away from the house after knocking on the door and receiving no answer, charging papers say, somebody shot at him through a window, wounding him in the head and shoulder.
King County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Dana Cashman said in the court papers that because one can say who was responsible for that shooting, no charges have been filed.
According to charging papers, the Honda then fled along Auburn Way South, the two Gallegos brothers in hot pursuit. Gustavo Gallegos allegedly fired shots from the left rear passenger seat, hitting a pregnant Ana Martinez-Adriano through her left breast and Jessica Sanchez in her stomach. According to charging papers, the occupants of the Honda were unarmed and did not return fire.
According to charging papers, Martinez-Adriano passed out, and the other occupants of the Honda thought she was dead. According to charging papers, the driver of the Honda pulled into the gravel parking lot of the 76 station at 600 Auburn Way S., where somebody pushed Martinez-Adriano out of the car and onto the ground. After one of the party advised the station’s clerk that there was a dead woman outside, the Honda took off. A short time later, according to charging papers, Sanchez realized that she had been shot in the stomach, and the driver headed to Auburn Regional to seek medical attention for her.
Charging papers said that after a chase, police used a PIT maneuver to stop the brothers’ car in the 4000 block of Auburn Way North. Police found a rifle inside the Mustang.
The man who was shot and Martinez-Adriano were transported to Harborview Medical Center with life-threatening injuries.
All three victims survived, but with critical injuries.
According to a search warrant served at the Gallegos home, police found many gang-related items, in addition to two more weapons and ammunition.
