Strike one for drive-by shooter
EPHRATA — A Warden man is serving eight years in prison after pleading guilty in five cases spanning two years.
Salvador Harrison, 27, pleaded guilty to drive-by shooting, assault in the second degree and three counts of attempted unlawful possession of a firearm in the second degree. The cases span across 2008 and 2009.
Grant County Superior Court Judge Evan Sperline followed the prosecutor’s recommendation sentencing the man to a total of eight years in prison.
The drive-by shooting happened on Broadway Avenue, while Harrison was riding with Nancy Hernandez, 20, Warden. Two women and a girl pulled next to the car and the driver yelled at Hernandez to stop. The woman told Moses Lake police she wanted to fight Hernandez because she was trying to “sleep with her man,” according to the police report
When the cars approached the 2700 block, Hernandez grabbed a baby’s diaper bag from the back, handing it to Harrison. He took a gun from the bag, firing it twice, and hitting one of the tires. None of the people in the car were injured, according to the police report.
Hernandez pleaded guilty to attempted assault in the second degree in January. Sperline sentenced her to three months in jail.
In a separate case, Harrison and another man drove past a Moses Lake residence in a Ford Aerostar van. They were followed by the victim, her boyfriend, her mother and her mother’s boyfriend. The group followed the van to Broad Street, where they stopped next to it, according to a Grant County sheriff’s report.
When the victim’s mother started arguing with Harrison, he punched her in the face, causing the woman’s boyfriend to start fighting with the two men, according to the police report. When Harrison ordered his unnamed accomplice to shoot, the man pulled out a .25 caliber pistol, firing twice, hitting the victim in the arm, according to the police report.
Harrison was originally charged with assault in the first degree for the crime, but prosecutors lessened the charge in the plea agreement. Prosecutor Angus Lee explained the change was made because Harrison was not the shooter.
In three other cases, Harrison was found with a weapon on him. Once when sheriff’s deputies responded to a case of illegal burning, another when Moses Lake police responded to a report of someone shooting from the window of a car, and the last when police were conducting a search on a Kinder Road residence.
Lee previously stated the plea gives a Harrison a “strike” under the state’s “three strikes” law. If Harrison is caught committing another “strike” offense in the future he could face life in prison if convicted.