Additional charges in Lakeview shooting
LAKEVIEW — Additional assault charges have been filed against a man who was shot during an exchange of gunfire with police in the Lakeview community near Soap Lake earlier this month.
When Alejandro Rodríguez, 26, was arrested and booked into jail he was initially charged in Grant County Superior Court with two counts of first-degree assault (firearm, deadly weapon, force). Prosecutors amended the charges on Tuesday and Rodríguez is now charged with four counts of first-degree assault-law enforcement officer (firearm, deadly weapon, force). Due to the severity of the alleged crimes, and on the basis of a life sentence if he is ultimately convicted, Rodríguez is being held in the Grant County Jail without bail.
The charges relate to an Aug. 19 officer-involved shooting in the Lakeview community near Soap Lake. Police were in the 100 block of Adrian Avenue Northwest that day searching for an armed robbery suspect who was on the run for a couple of days. Sgt. Ryan Harvey and officer Bill Roberts, of the Ephrata Police Department, contacted a subject at the main house and Grant County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Scott Granger and Soap Lake officer Nicholas Diaz approached from the back.
The person at the main house led the officers to a shed at the back of the property and a woman informed Granger there was a male inside. The woman entered the shed and told the man inside, Rodríguez, to leave. Rodríguez left the shed but started walking away from Diaz and Granger and refused officer commands, after which he allegedly reached toward his waist and hid behind a pile of garbage. It was then that shots were allegedly exchanged between Rodríguez and the officers.
Rodríguez was shot in the leg during the exchange and he was treated at Samaritan Hospital and booked into jail later that day. Detectives with the Central Basin Investigative Team (CBIT) recovered a 9mm pistol with a round in the chamber on a tarp that was covering the garbage pile where Rodríguez hid for cover.
Richard Byrd can be reached via email at city@columbiabasinherald.com.