King County Sheriff’s Office investigators suspected at first that the guy they believed was responsible for the drive-by shooting that had rattled a quiet residential neighborhood on the night of Dec. 5, 2021, had fired at only one home.
In that home, investigators found a bullet that had entered a second second-floor bedroom, tunneled through a purse and lodged in a television — and the occupants told them they knew who had done it.
But when the investigation resumed on the following day, investigators determined that the shooter had actually hit three homes that night, endangering a total of 23 people and causing $2,700 worth of damage.
On March 11, the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office charged 21-year old Jesse Garcia-Zamora of Auburn with a drive-by shooting.
Here is what happened, according to a report by King County Sheriff’s Office Detective Jason Jones.
At about 11:54 p.m. Dec. 5, KCSO deputies were dispatched to 162nd Court Southeast to investigate a drive-by shooting. The homeowners told deputies they believed Zamora was responsible because their son had been in a fight with him several months before.
Returning to the scene the next day, deputies found three bullet casings on Southeast 388th Street near Southeast 386th Lane and discovered that two other residences had been fired upon that night.
Multiple witnesses also reported that after the shots were fired, they saw a white SUV of the same type Garcia-Zamora owns leaving the scene.
According to the report, Garcia-Zamora’s brother told one of the victims that on the night of the incident, he — as yet unaware of the drive-by shooting — had helped his brother retrieve his Chevy Tahoe from a ditch he had crashed it into near the Muckleshoot Tribal College.
According to the report, the witness also said that Garcia-Zamora had told his brother he’d gotten rid of the gun he used in the drive-by shooting,
In an unrelated case on Dec. 18, deputies arrested Garcia-Zamora for second degree assault domestic violence and had his van towed to a secured police lot to obtain a search warrant.
In the recorded interview at KCSO Precinct 3, Garcia-Zamora allegedly admitted to driving by the victim’s residence and shooting out the van’s window toward the residence.
On that occasion, according to the report, Garcia-Zamora also allegedly confirmed that the handgun he’d used was still in the SUV he was driving. He said he obtained the gun after the recent death of his brother.
At that point, deputies arrested Garcia-Zamora and booked him into the King County Jail for second-degree assault domestic violence.
According to the report, the Auburn Police Department had arrested Garcia-Zamora in 2021 for a drive-by shooting from which he fled while intoxicated. Turns out Auburn police were nearby, stopped Garcia-Zamora and arrested him for several offenses, including that drive-by shooting.
On Dec. 20, deputies performed an approved search warrant on the white Chevy Tahoe and recovered the gun along with another pistol, neither of which he was supposed to have.
On Dec. 21, a witness told investigators that she and her boyfriend had heard several gunshots that night, and that when she looked outside, she’d seen a large white SUV drive by. Roughly a half-hour later, according to the report, she and her boyfriend heard 3-4 more shots coming from Southeast 388th Street. When she looked out the back window, she said, she again saw the same white SUV drive by.
On Jan. 4, according to the report, another witness who’d gone to school with Garcia-Zamora stated that on the night of the shooting, he was at a friend’s house off Southeast 392nd Street when he heard two gunshots. He said that roughly a minute later, he saw a white SUV drive past where he was at and could see Jesse Garcia driving, and according to the report, said he was positive the person he’d seen in the van was Garcia-Zamora.
