A 28-year-old Seattle man received a sentence of 30 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and first-degree assault for a September 2016 shooting at a Kent home.
King County Superior Court Judge Cheryl Carey sentenced Quang Ngoc Dinh in January, according to court documents. Dinh fatally shot Huy Huynh, 39, of Tukwila, at a house in the 500 block of Fourth Avenue South. He also shot and injured a woman at the house.
Dinh told Kent Police he shot Huynh because the man decided to go to bed and refused to stay up and drink alcohol with him, according to charging documents. Dinh went outside to get a handgun from his car, returned to the back door of the home and shot Huynh through the open door.
The Tukwila man was one of about eight people drinking alcohol and eating at the house, where his girlfriend lives. The girlfriend told police that her boyfriend and Dinh got in an argument about her boyfriend wanting to go to bed but Dinh wanted him to stay up and drink more. She said earlier in the night Dinh even kicked in the bedroom door and threatened her boyfriend with a kitchen knife if he did not come back out and keep drinking.
The woman told police that several people tried to break up the argument and got Dinh outside to his parked car so he could leave with his wife and two small children to go home. She even heard his wife yell out, “Stop, stop!” Immediately afterward, the woman heard two loud bangs. She looked to the back door of the house and saw her boyfriend had been shot in the forehead and fell to the ground.
The woman then saw Dinh holding a handgun as he entered the home and stood over her boyfriend. She ran out of the house and down the street to a neighbor’s house to call for help.
Police arrived and arrested Dinh outside the home.
“I was waiting for you guys out here,” Dinh told the officers.
Police searched Dinh and found a handgun on his waistband and two fully loaded additional ammunition magazines in his pocket. He had blood on his shirt and pants.
The woman who was shot ran to a nearby fire station for help. Paramedics transported her to Valley Medical Center in Renton for treatment for a non-life threatening wound to the head. She had tried to close the back door of the house as Dinh fired two shots.
Dinh initially pleaded not guilty to the charges in September 2016. Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Stephen Herschkowitz handled the case for the state. Andrew Repanich and Colleen O’Connor represented Dinh.
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