Man who shot deputy turned gun on self; Cox remembered at vigil

The man who killed King County sheriff's Deputy Steve Cox early Saturday took his own life during a gunfight with other sheriff's deputies, authorities said Tuesday.

Raymond O. Porter had been shot by deputies in the chest and thigh when he shot himself in the head, said sheriff's spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart. The county Medical Examiner's Office has ruled his death a suicide, Urquhart said.

Investigators initially believed sheriff's deputies had killed Porter.

Porter shot Cox twice in the head while Cox was questioning him in an upstairs bedroom of a White Center home. The deputies were investigating the beating and shooting of a motorist who crashed his car into a vehicle belonging to one of several partygoers at the home.

Detectives also suspect Porter fatally shot a man whom police described as a gang member about four hours before Cox was killed. The nude body of Dominique McCray, 23, was found at about 10 p.m. Friday in the 13600 block of 18th Avenue South in SeaTac, police documents say.

The bullets used to kill Cox and McCray came from the same handgun, police said.

The announcement that Porter committed suicide came as sheriff's deputies and members of the community gathered Tuesday evening outside the White Center Sheriff & Community Service Center for a candlelight vigil for Cox.

Cox, 46, was a 10-year law-enforcement veteran and beloved deputy who had patrolled White Center — the high-crime neighborhood near where he grew up — for the past three years. He took cleaning up White Center seriously enough to become president of a neighborhood council and was often spotted at restaurants and stores with his wife and their newly adopted 1-year-old son.

"He was a godsend, an angel," Burien resident Whitney Horton said during the vigil.

Horton, 41, said that when she was addicted to crack cocaine four years ago Cox would scold her for loitering in White Center. The deputy was strict but always a role model, she said.

"He was just doing his job, I didn't take it personally," Horton said. "He was a father, a brother and a friend."

Horton read a poem she wrote about Cox before the nearly 200 people huddled outside the White Center Sheriff & Community Service Center for the vigil. "Gone too soon is what you are. In the blink of an eye you are an amazing star," Horton read.

During the vigil, Sheriff Sue Rahr said hearing that Porter was not killed by deputies was "a surprising new twist."

"But it really doesn't change anything," Rahr said. "Steve's gone, and it's still tragedy all the way around."

Porter had been released from prison in August and had been under the supervision of the state Department of Corrections (DOC).

A DOC spokesman said a warrant had been issued for Porter's arrest after he had failed drug tests and missed an appointment with supervisors. However, the warrant was quashed after he reported to DOC supervisors.

Porter's family couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday about the announcement that he had killed himself.

Cox is the third King County law-enforcement officer since August whose death has been blamed on someone under DOC supervision. On Monday, Gov. Chris Gregoire ordered the agency to review how it supervised all three convicts.

Sheriff's deputies responded to the White Center home at about 2:45 a.m. Saturday after an unidentified motorist was attacked after he accidentally drove his pickup into a car belonging to a partygoer, Urquhart said.

While Cox was interviewing Porter alone to find out who assaulted the motorist, Porter shot Cox twice in the head. The gun Porter used to kill Cox and McCray was not the same weapon used to shoot the motorist, police said.

In addition to Porter, police said a 26-year-old man participated in the shooting of McCray and the motorist attack. He is being held in the King County Jail in lieu of $1.75 million bail.

A 21-year-old Seattle woman who police say was with them when McCray was shot is being held in lieu of $50,000 bail for her alleged connection with the motorist attack.

A 32-year-old man and a 26-year-old woman also have been arrested in the attack on the motorist.

Although authorities say McCray was a gang member, McCray's family disputed that.

"Why would he get in a car with members of a rival gang? That doesn't make any sense," said McCray's brother Johnnie Williams.

"My brother was in the streets and he was involved in drugs, but he wasn't part of a gang and he would never, ever hurt a fly," he said.

Staff reporter Christine Clarridge contributed to this report.

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