Moses Lake man killed in Spokane

SPOKANE - A 21-year-old Moses Lake man was fatally shot at a Spokane hotel while visiting the city with a large group of friends for a concert.

Jose Arthur Solis, also known as Junior, was among several Moses Lake area residents who rented a block of about a dozen rooms at a Quality Inn in downtown Spokane over the weekend. The group was in town to do some shopping and attend a one-year anniversary concert for a local music production company, according to several people who were with the party.

At about 2:40 a.m. Sunday, Spokane police received a report of a fight with possible shots fired at the hotel, according to Spokane police spokesperson Jennifer DeRuwe. Officers reportedly arrived to find Solis suffering from a gunshot wound and surrounded by friends in the lobby area.

He was transported to a nearby hospital where he died about an hour later, DeRuwe said.

The Spokane County Medical Examiner's Office concluded during an autopsy Monday the cause of death was a single gunshot to the torso.

Police said the shooting suspect, John A. Castro, 27, Spokane, fled the hotel in a vehicle and was stopped just a few blocks away. He ran from police but was located nearby a short time later and was booked into the Spokane County Jail for murder.

Castro is known to have gang affiliation, DeRuwe said; adding no other suspects are being sought at this time.

Detectives interviewed about 50 people Sunday morning, including witnesses and hotel staff, and the Spokane Violent Crimes Gang Enforcement Team assisted in the investigation.

Among the witnesses were four Moses Lake women, who gave their accounts of what happened to the Columbia Basin Herald.

They asked to have their names withheld for fear of retribution by Spokane gang members.

"I'm getting threats already," said one woman.

She and others said Castro and his group showed up to the concert at Ichiban, a local restaurant and club, where they allegedly started a fight with some people unaffiliated with the Moses Lake party.

After the concert, Castro and about 10 of his associates reportedly came back to the hotel, where some members of the group also had rooms.

It was there witnesses say a fight broke out on the fourth floor involving Castro's group and a smaller number from the Moses Lake party. The majority of the Moses Lake group were in their rooms on the sixth floor.

Some said the initial hotel fight may have been racially motivated. Two women said they heard one of Castro's party asking about an African American member of the Moses Lake group, saying, "Where's that (black person) at who thinks he's Mexican?" before allegedly finding and assaulting the man and his girlfriend.

After the alleged attack, the victims reportedly locked themselves in a room. The attackers were reportedly trying to kick in the door when Solis came downstairs to help his friend, according to one woman.

"Junior came into the hall and they surrounded him and started to beat him up and then I heard a gunshot," she said.

Another woman, who said she's known Solis and his family since he was 11 years old, said she ran to find her friend bleeding on the floor.

"I went over and put pressure on the wound and told him an ambulance was on the way, to hold on," she said.

When an ambulance still hadn't arrived several minutes later, she said friends picked him up and brought him to the downstairs lobby, where they were met by police.

A 32-year-old woman, who was there, said Solis had no gang ties and was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time when he was shot.

"He was coming to help his friend who was getting beat up," she said. "I'm still in shock. I can't believe this happened."

Jackie Montano was outside smoking with a friend when she said she saw a vehicle hurriedly speed out of the parking lot, hitting a car in the process. She said she didn't know what had occurred inside the hotel, but she managed to use her cellphone to capture a few pictures of the vehicle before it fled the scene. The pictures were later given to the police.

Montano, whose brother was recently shot and killed in Moses Lake, said she knows the pain of losing a loved one to a violent death.

"My heart just goes out to the family. My own wound is still open," she said. "God just put me in place to take those pictures."

Solis was a father of two and he loved music and sports, according to a family member who asked not to be named.

"He was very outgoing, had lots of friends and loved spending time with his family," she said, adding Solis leaves behind a 3-year-old daughter and a newborn son.

He graduated from Moses Lake High School in 2009 and was a member of a music group called Base Blocc 223, which he dreamed would be a successful music group someday.

Memorial services for Solis are Wednesday at Carver Family Funeral Home in Moses Lake and include a viewing from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., with Recitation of the Holy Rosary at 12:30 p.m. and burial at 1 p.m. in Pioneer Memorial Gardens.