Shooting in Skyway leaves three dead

Kicked out of a Skyway parking lot for loitering early Thursday morning, five teen boys and men drove their car into the driveway of a nearby home. Police say they picked the wrong house.

Two men who were at the house reportedly got into an argument with the group in the car and began shooting. Two people in the car were killed, and a third was in critical condition Thursday. Two others were hospitalized with less-serious injuries, with one later released.

One of the home's residents, a 28-year-old man, was killed after being struck by a stray bullet, said King County sheriff's spokesman John Urquhart.

The other resident of the house, a 23-year-old man, was arrested on suspicion of six counts of assault.

Sheriff's detectives initially believed that the occupants of the car had been involved in a shootout with the two men, but they later determined the teens and men in the car were not armed.

"We still believe they ended up in this driveway by happenstance," Urquhart said about the group in the 1990 Toyota Corolla.

He said the two men at the house may have been protecting a drug operation. Sheriff's detectives found "a medium-sized" marijuana-growing operation while searching the house at 11670 Renton Ave. S. He didn't know how many plants were found.

Investigators have not released the names of any of the people who were in the Toyota. The youngest is said to be 16 years old, but it wasn't immediately known whether he was among the dead. The oldest were in their early 20s, Urquhart said.

The 28-year-old died at Harborview Medical Center Thursday. His last-known address was in Kent.

Urquhart said the group in the car had been loitering in the parking lot of Skyway Park Bowl and Casino, in an unincorporated area between Renton and Seattle. After they were asked to leave the parking lot shortly after 1 a.m., they drove a short distance to the house.

After pistol shots were fired at the car, the Toyota's driver sped across Renton Avenue South, hit a wall and the car caught fire.

A woman who lives near the house described the rapid-fire shots as "like something out of a movie."

"It was just rapid gunfire shots probably five, six or seven shots," said the 56-year-old woman, who declined to give her name.

Within five minutes she heard sirens, she said.

Alicia Sison Cortes, who works at the Bellevue realty agency that owns the Skyway home, said the man who was arrested has lived at the home since May.

"I can't believe it. He's very nice, very polite," said Sison Cortes, who works at Realty Blessings.

She said the man is a construction worker who planned to move out within six months and buy his own home. The man has a roommate, but she couldn't recall his name.

A relative of the suspect hung up when a reporter called her home Thursday. The Seattle Times generally does not name suspects until they are charged.

On Thursday afternoon a car with relatives of the two deceased men who were in the Toyota arrived at the house. Several women got out and spoke with detectives. One woman, who didn't want to give her name, said the young men didn't know the occupants of the house.

"He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," she said. Another woman who stopped by, Harmony Yeo, said she knew the 28-year-old man who was killed by errant gunfire.

"He's a good person," she said.

"He'd never be the one to initiate this," said another friend, Dawn Hodge.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com

Nancy Bartley: 206-464-8522 or nbartley@seattletimes.com

Seattle Times news researcher Miyoko Wolf contributed to this report.