Four men charged with murder in SeaTac shooting

A brazen mid-afternoon shooting last week in SeaTac that killed a man in a hail of assault-rifle fire was a "hit" carried out in retaliation for another shooting in Seattle that the dead man was believed to have committed earlier that day, prosecutors said today.

King County prosecutors filed first-degree murder charges against Jontae Chatman, 21, of Seattle, Dominick Reed, 20, of Seattle, Antoine Davis, 21, of Kent, and Nestor Ovidio-Mejia, 21, of SeaTac in connection with the slaying of Mario Spearman, who died Sunday night of several gunshot wounds. Spearman was driving a car that was fired upon last Tuesday at a SeaTac intersection.

The four men were also each charged with three counts of attempted murder for seriously wounding a passenger in the car, David Route, and narrowly missing Paige Sauer and her 2-year-old son, who were in the back seat.

All four defendants are being held on $2 million bail. Arraignment has been set for April 21. Davis fled to Idaho, but was arrested and is being held there pending extradition back to Washington, according to prosecutors.

According to charging documents, Spearman was hit with a spray of bullets from an AK-47 assault rifle as his Cadillac idled at a light on International Boulevard about 4 p.m. Tuesday. Witnesses said the shooters were standing just off the sidewalk as they fired. They then jumped into a silver car and drove off.

Witnesses got the license-plate number of the getaway car and police traced it to Reed. They found the car in SeaTac being driven by Ovidio-Mejia.

Based on their investigation and interviews with the suspects, detectives described in charging papers that this is how the attack unfolded:

Earlier in the day, Ovidio-Mejia and Reed were driving in Seattle when they came upon the scene of a shooting being investigated by Seattle police. The victim in that shooting, a friend of theirs, was being treated by paramedics. Reed and Ovidio-Mejia suspected Spearman of shooting the man.

The two men went to Skyway and picked up Chatman and Davis and went looking for Spearman in SeaTac because they knew he hung out on International Boulevard, according to charging papers.

When they spotted Spearman's car in traffic, they pulled up behind it. Chatman and Davis jumped out and opened fire, according to charging papers.

The bullets tore through Spearman's car "from stem to stern," prosecutors wrote. Sauer managed to duck and cover her son, court documents said. A bullet passed through the seat and would have hit her had she not ducked, according to prosecutors.

As the four attackers fled into Tukwila, one of the guns went off accidentally, striking Reed in the groin as he was driving. They stopped the getaway car so Chatman and Davis could get out and run away.

Then Ovidio-Mejia drove Reed to Highline Hospital. He was later taken to Harborview Medical Center, where detectives found him.

Ian Ith: 206-464-2109 or iith@seattletimes.com