Shayne Willis was charged Monday, Jan. 3, with two counts of assault in the first degree by the King County Prosecutor’s Office for shooting a 19-year-old man and his 16-year-old girlfriend after an argument about gang affiliation on the Lake Wilderness Trail on Dec. 28.

The male victim was walking with his girlfriend on the Lake Wilderness Trail during the afternoon of Dec. 28, the charging papers stated, heading from the young man’s house to the grocery store.

The couple encountered two young men, one of whom the girl recognized as a high-school classmate. Her boyfriend had met him before, the document stated.

The young man the couple knew was wearing a blue bandanna around his neck.

The boyfriend “asked him if he was claiming or representing himself as a ‘Crip,'” the charging papers stated, adding blue is a common color used by Crip gang members to identify themselves.

He replied that he was “not banging” or not claiming to be a member of a gang and asked the boyfriend if he had a problem. The boyfriend said he did.

At this point Willis “stepped in and told (the victim) not ‘to mess with us’ and to take off or walk away, at the same time opening the suit jacket he was wearing to display that he was armed with a handgun in a holster on his waist,” charging papers state.

The victim told Willis that he was not armed, stating “I’m not strapped up right now,” then asked Willis to identify himself.

Willis responded by telling the victim not to mess with him and that he was known on the street as “Pan,” then pulled the handgun from his waist and told the victim to walk away.

The boyfriend took this as a sign of disrespect because Willis had pulled a gun in front of his girlfriend and continued to ask Willis to identify himself.

This is apparently when the discussion became heated, the charging papers stated, which ended with Willis pointing the gun and telling the victim he had until the count of three to leave. He then counted and when he reached three he fired a single shot, hitting the male victim in the neck.

The teenage girl, who was standing behind and to the side of the victim, was struck by the same bullet after it passed through her boyfriend’s neck and struck her in the left ear.

Willis and his companion fled north on foot, the charging papers stated, briefly staying on the trail before cutting into the woods bordering the trail where Willis dropped the weapon and holster near a tree. As they continued north, the young man with Willis dumped his jacket and bandanna, and even farther north Willis tossed his jacket, hat and suspenders.

As the pair came out of the woods, a deputy responding to the 911 call for the incident spotted them and took them into custody.

King County Sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart said the shooter and the other man were caught northeast of the scene of the incident at Rock Creek Elementary School.

After he was shot, the male victim called 911 to report the incident, and before he was taken to Harborview Medical Center was able to positively identify Willis as the person who shot him and identified Willis’ companion.

Both Willis and his companion, who was not charged and according to documents is a juvenile, were taken to the Maple Valley Precinct to be interviewed. Both confirmed the details of the incident after agreeing to be interviewed.

During the interview, Willis told a King County detective he had gotten the pistol used in the shooting from his step-father’s garage earlier that day, with his motive for the shooting being that the boyfriend “would not leave he and (his companion) alone,” the charging papers stated.

It seems that Willis stole the gun from his step-father’s garage, which apparently was in a locked toolbox that appeared to have been pried open, according to the detective who investigated the incident.

Willis said he was not a member of a gang, but items on his person including a wallet, hat and necklace, the way he was dressed as well as tattoos, led the detective to believe he is an active member of a gang.

As a result of the injury to his neck, the male victim required emergency surgery, and his girlfriend also needed surgery and stitches to treat her injury. She also has suffered some hearing loss as a result.

Bail for Willis was set at $250,000 on Dec. 29. He is currently in custody in the psychiatric unit of the King County jail.

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