March shooting suspect back in custody after failure to appear
Samuel Ramirez of Othello was arrested at a residence in Soap Lake after failing to appear for a court date associated with a March 8 drive-by shooting he is alleged to have been the gunman in.
MLPD PHOTO
SOAP LAKE — The Moses Lake Police Department announced the arrest of Samuel Ramirez, 26, in association with the investigation of a March 8 shooting that led to the son of Washington Rep. Tom Dent, R-Moses Lake, being seriously injured. A second man, Luis Medina, 28, was arrested in mid-March and has since pleaded guilty and is serving jail time.
“He was out on bail and he was supposed to come back a couple weeks ago; he didn’t show up,” Rep. Dent said. “A couple nights ago, the Moses Lake Police Department called me and said they caught him. He was still in town, so they have him back in custody, is my understanding.”
Ramirez was arrested at a residence in Soap Lake, according to the MLPD announcement. MLPD was aided by the U.S. Marshals Violent Offenders Taks Force and the Moses Lake Regional Tactical Response Team. Court documents show he had previously been in custody and had been out on bail but failed to appear for a hearing.
Moses Lake Police Department officers were summoned to a report of an argument in the 1100 block of Stratford Road on the evening of March 8. When they arrived at the scene, they received notification of a shooting at the intersection of Stratford Road and Maple Drive Northeast. Dent’s son, Monty Dent, was subsequently found injured, taken to Samaritan Hospital in Moses Lake, and subsequently airlifted to Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane and later released to recuperate at home.
A witness to the event said it appeared that the event was gang-related, according to court documents in Medina’s court case. Monty told investigators he believed it was gang-related as well when interviewed at the hospital.
A Glock Model 45 nine millimeter pistol was found in a white BMW that Medina admitted to driving during the shooting when interviewed by investigators. During that interview, Medina alleged that Ramirez had been the shooter in the incident.
Medina pleaded guilty to one count of Drive-by Shooting, a class B felony, and two counts of Unlawful Possession of a Firearm in the Second Degree in Grant County Superior Court on June 3 of this year. He was sentenced to two years in prison for the Drive-by charge and eight months for the firearms charges, served concurrently, according to court records.
Ramirez was arrested Thursday after having failed to appear for a court date and was still listed in the Grant County Jail’s inmate roster as of Saturday afternoon with bail set at $250,000. An omnibus hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. Oct. 21 in his case. He faces charges of Drive-by Shooting and Assault in the First Degree. He has entered an initial plea of not guilty, though that may change as the case progresses. The case will be heard in Grant County Superior Court.
Rep. Dent said his son is recovering but continues to have challenges with one of his arms due to nerve damage sustained in the shooting.
“His arm is still not as healed up as we wish it was, you know, and it still has quite a bit of swelling in it,” Dent said of his son’s condition. “You can still feel some knots in there.”
Monty has difficult days, but Rep. Dent said he believes anyone who’d been shot would have frustrations and emotionally challenging times. He said he hopes to work in the Legislature to shore up the power of law enforcement to address the issue of gang violence and violent crime in general, noting that several shootings have occurred in the Columbia Basin in the past few months since his son was assaulted.
“This cannot continue the way it is, you know,” he said. “This is not a polite society or a civilized society.”
Rep. Dent said he will be meeting with Speaker of the Washington House Laurie Jinkins, a Democrat from Tacoma, in the next few weeks to discuss what might be done to address violent crime in the state and empower law enforcement to prevent future violence.
“I think it's time we sit down at the table, begin to barnstorm, you know, and bring law enforcement into it, because they get it, and see what we can sort out,” he said.