King County prosecutors say a 41-year-old Seattle man instigated a fight and fatally shot an unarmed man on a street corner in the Capitol Hill neighborhood on Friday night, telling a witness, “I’m going to shoot him” at least five minutes before opening fire.
Daniel John Carlee was charged Wednesday with premeditated first-degree murder, accused of killing Solomon Thompson, 38, after claiming to witnesses that Thompson was a child molester, charging papers say. Carlee was arrested at the scene and remains jailed in lieu of $2 million bail.
The charges don’t elaborate on the accusation, and King County court records show Thompson did not have any sex crime cases filed against him.
Carlee “persistently followed and yelled at the victim, essentially trying to turn what should have been no more than a verbal argument into a physical confrontation,” Senior Deputy Prosecutor Terrence Carlstrom wrote in charging papers.
Minutes after telling an uninvolved witness he planned to shoot Thompson, “he proceeded to do so, pulling a concealed pistol from his waistband and firing at least 8 shots into the unarmed victim at point blank range in front of multiple horrified witnesses, continuing to shoot him even after he had collapsed to the ground,” Carlstrom wrote.
Carlee has no known prior criminal convictions.
A woman called 911 at 10:20 p.m. Friday and reported two men were fighting and shining lights at each other and that one of them was waving a knife or box cutter around at the corner of East Pine Street and Belmont Avenue, the charges say. While still on the phone with the 911 operator, the woman said, “Shots have been fired!” and that the gunman continued firing after the man dropped to the ground, according to charging papers.
The woman and two of her friends watched the interaction from inside a parked vehicle, and their accounts were consistent with what two other witnesses also told police, charging papers say.
The witnesses told police the man, later identified as Thompson, tried to walk away and that the two men exchanged punches, but none of them landed, the charges say.
Carlee, who also called 911, put his gun on the ground and remained at the scene until officers arrived. He was later photographed at police headquarters and did not have any noticeable redness, bruising or other injuries to his body, according to the charges.
His gun, a 9 mm Glock pistol with a light mounted on the frame, was recovered by police, who also found eight spent casings. Carlee was wearing a tactical belt with a gun holster attached and had a pocketknife, flashlight and cellphone on him at the time of his arrest, the charges say.
Thompson died at the scene, and an autopsy showed the fatal gunshot penetrated his heart, charging papers say.
Carlee is scheduled to be arraigned Monday.
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