Auburn Police detectives on Monday arrested a male juvenile for the shooting death of a 17-year-old motorist last Friday morning.
The 16-year-old suspect was arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder, according to the probable-cause statement. The juvenile, who was processed into the King County Juvenile Detention Center in Seattle, is awaiting his first court hearing.
The victim has been identified as Erick Valdez-Herrera, the King County Medical Examiner’s office said.
According to police, additional interviews and followup leads are being tracked down and investigated. No other information is being released at this time.
Detectives also recovered the suspected handgun that was used in the shooting.
Auburn Police searched last Friday for a shooter who killed the teenager shortly after 8 a.m. in Auburn’s south end, forcing several schools to go on precautionary lockdown.
The shooting occurred in the area 25th and F Street Southeast, where police found the victim in the driver’s seat of his car, bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds. Police and medics tried to revive him but could not, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
A K9 unit could not track the suspect, whom witnesses described only as a black male in his late teens or early 20s.
Officers responded to the scene at 8:32 a.m., in the middle of the roadway on 25th Street, mere yards west of a Sierra Meadows Apartment Homes sign.
“Witnesses reported several subjects running from the scene. … The information we have so far leads us to believe that this shooting is gang related,” Police Commander Steve Stocker said last Friday.
The shooting prompted a lockdown of Olympic Middle School, and Pioneer Elementary and Terminal Park elementary. Gildo Rey Elementary and Mt. Baker Middle School also were placed on modified lockdown. The lockdowns were lifted within two hours.
An area resident had this to say.
“Police said it wasn’t a random shooting, but it’s becoming like a war zone here,” said the woman, who did not give her name.
If anyone has any information related to this shooting, they should contact the Auburn Police Department tip line at 253-288-7403 or call 911.
