A 22-year-old man has been charged with assault after an incident in East Bremerton that left a 23-year-old fatally shot and another man seriously injured.
The events that led to the death came following a fight in the parking lot at McCloud's Grill House off Wheaton Way in Bremerton early Friday morning, according to court documents.
The Kitsap County Medical Examiner's Office identified the deceased man as 23-year-old Deshawn Wild, of Lynnwood, and said his cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds and his manner of death was homicide.
Prosecutors have charged 22-year-old Pierre Francious Taylor with a count of first-degree assault, for shooting a man involved in the incident who police linked to the shots that killed Wild, according to court documents. The assault victim was seriously injured and was taken to St. Michael Medical Center before he was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle for treatment.
A spokesperson for the hospital said Tuesday that the man had been in satisfactory condition and had been discharged.
No one has been charged for Wild's death, and Kitsap County Prosecuting Attorney Chad Enright said Wednesday, "Based on the evidence that we currently have, it appears that (the assault victim) acted in self-defense, but we will continue to review evidence as it comes in."
Bremerton police said in a news release last week that shortly after shots were reported at McCloud's early Friday morning, Bremerton Fire Department medics had been at the old Harrison Medical Center site on Cherry Avenue in Bremerton when a vehicle stopped, its driver pulled a man from the passenger seat and left him on the ground before driving off. Medics began to treat the man, later identified as Wild, in their ambulance, but he did not live, police said.
A Kitsap County sheriff's sergeant located the vehicle that dropped off Wild and detained the driver, police said. Court documents identify that man as Taylor, who prosecutors charged with the assault count in Kitsap County Superior Court. In an initial court appearance on Monday, Taylor pleaded not guilty to the charge, and his bail was set at $1 million. McCloud's incident
Wild, Taylor and the assault victim were visiting the bar together and had been out in the parking lot near a Toyota Camry, a rental car Taylor had been driving, preparing to smoke together before the confrontation took place, a Bremerton police officer wrote in a report about the incident.
At one point, surveillance video showed Wild lifting his shirt as he seemed to be speaking to the assault victim, the officer wrote, noting, "I have seen this sort of movement before as a police officer and is typically meant to show the presence or lack of a firearm when carried in a waistband, appendix carry."
Wild was then seen walking to the front passenger door of the Camry with another man, and Taylor was seen approaching the driver's side door. Wild then leaned into the vehicle, turned, approached the assault victim, who was at the back of the vehicle, and threw a "large" punch at him, the officer wrote.
The two fell to the ground and ended up in between two vehicles, and Taylor appeared to stand at the back of one of the vehicles. The officer wrote that a man who appeared to be the eventual assault victim could be seen "punching and possibly kicking downward" and said the person being struck was "presumably" Wild.
As the assault victim was swinging, he suddenly fell out of camera view, which appeared to be when he was shot, the officer noted. The officer wrote that based on the video, it appeared that Taylor shot the man, the assault for which he was charged this week. Wild went to the passenger side of the vehicle and eventually exited it and appeared to approach the assault victim before he suddenly turned back toward the vehicle and ran. This appeared to be when Wild was shot, the officer wrote. He fell to the ground and laid there for a moment before he then crawled to the vehicle, which lingered for a bit before it left the area.
The Camry was later stopped, and Taylor was arrested. The Bremerton officer wrote that Taylor placed himself at the scene of the shooting and had an unused .40 caliber, Blazer brand round in his pocket. The Camry had a dent that was consistent with a grazing bullet impact about 28 inches off the ground, the officer wrote, noting that the height and impact indicated that it was fired from about that height and may have been fired from a seated position, which was consistent with where the assault victim was located.
Both .40 caliber Blazer brand and 9 mm casings were found at the scene, the officer wrote, noting, "The presence of the two rounds would indicate two people were shooting or one had two guns of different calibers."
The assault victim was interviewed by the officer at Harborview, and he relayed that the group had gone outside the bar to smoke when Wild showed he had a firearm, according to court documents.
He believed Wild was drunk and at one point "claimed Deshawn was holding him down by his neck and Pierre approached him and shot him while leaning over the two," the officer wrote. "(The assault victim) claimed he begged for his life and Pierre stopped shooting him. It should be noted, this was not consistent with the video footage, both as (he) appeared to be on top but also because at least two men were standing in the video. (He) claimed he did not recall much of the fight or what was said, and he denied having a firearm."
The officer wrote that information from Wild's autopsy appeared consistent with interpretations of the video in which Wild was shot at the back of the Camry while approaching the assault victim after the fight.
"Due to the initial observation of direction and positioning, these shots appear to come from (the assault victim), despite him denying having a firearm," the officer wrote.