The father of a 16-year-old boy shot to death at a May 22 birthday barbecue in Auburn pleaded not guilty Thursday to first-degree assault and unlawful possession of a firearm, for allegedly firing shots during the ensuing melee at the people he held responsible for the killing.
Gabriel Wilson, 46, entered the plea during his arraignment at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent.
Prosecutors last week charged 17-year-old James Mills of Kent as an adult with 2nd-degree murder for the shooting death of 16-year-old Adrian Wilson. Mills’ arraignment is Monday.
Auburn Police Detective Michelle Vojir’s account, the basis for the charge against Wilson, runs as follows:
Adrian Wilson and his family had been attending the barbecue that afternoon in the common area of the Aspen Meadows Apartments at 402 21st St. S.
Police responding to multiple reports of shots fired found young Wilson on the ground in front of apartment No. 45, dead, and his father nearby. Two other young men, Steven Chehey and Roberto Carro-Aguilar, lay on the ground with gunshot wounds. They were taken to Harborview Medical Center in serious condition.
Police also noticed that multiple bullets had been fired into a ground-floor apartment near where Adrian Wilson lay.
According to the detective’s account, police were approaching Gabriel Wilson when he rushed toward Corey Branham, a friend of Mills. An officer tried to stop Wilson, but he slammed the officer to the ground before police subdued and then arrested him.
According to the police account, Branham later told police that his aunt and Gabriel Wilson had been dating but had split up two weeks earlier. Branham told police that Gabriel Wilson had been sending threatening messages, and his aunt was in the process of taking out a restraining order against him. Branham also told police that Wilson had been angry at his — Branham’s — own mother, because he believed she was trying to keep him and his former girlfriend apart.
Shortly before the shooting, Branham, who lived in apartment No. 42, showed up at the barbecue with Mills and Mills’ girlfriend. Branham said that he and Wilson senior had a conversation about their issues, but it had ended civilly.
After a few minutes, Adrian Wilson confronted Mills about the gun Mills was carrying, according to the police account. He was walking toward Mills when Mills allegedly pulled out the weapon and fired, hitting young Wilson once in the head and killing him, according to the police account.
Branham told police that at that point, he ran into his apartment with his mother and Mills’ girlfriend, yelling at them to get down because there was shooting. He told police that when he looked out of the window a short time later, he saw people surrounding the fallen Wilson and Wilson’s father rounding the corner toward the apartments, gun in hand. Branham said he heard multiple shots being fired into the apartment, one narrowly missing his mother. As the shots were being fired, he heard Gabriel Wilson shout, “I am going to … kill you guys!” and yelling about his son, according to the police account.
Branham told police he left the apartment when he heard a fire engine arrive.
According to the police account, Gabriel Wilson later told police that he had tried to follow Mills and Branham with a gun that he had picked from the ground where one of the wounded young men lay. Unable to find them, he told police, he returned to the apartment complex, firing his gun into the apartment until he emptied the clip, 13 rounds in all, according to the police account. … The officers asked Wilson if had been trying to hit somebody in the apartment. According to the police account, his reply was: “They killed my … son. What do you expect?”
Wilson, a documented member of the Nortenos, a criminal street gang based in Northern California, has a prior felony conviction for heroin possession, 4th-degree assault, resisting arrest and 3rd-degree theft and is not allowed to possess a firearm. Bail was set at $750,000.
