Jury convicts Renton man in 2021 Kent killing at gas station

Published 1:05 pm Thursday, March 12, 2026

A King County jury convicted a 44-year-old Renton man of killing one man and injuring two others during a 2021 shooting at a Kent gas station.

The jury found Joseph Bert Dixon guilty March 11 at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent of first-degree murder, two counts of first-degree assault and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm, according to King County Superior Court documents. The murder and assault charges also included firearm enhancements.

Dixon wasn’t allowed to possess a firearm because of 10 prior felony convictions, including second-degree robbery, residential burglary, unlawful possession of a firearm and felony harassment.

Dixon killed Devon Hill, 23, when he fired into a car at the Circle K gas station, 1809 W. Meeker St. Hill died of a gunshot wound to the head, according to the King County Medical Examiner’s Office.

At about 1:18 a.m. on Sept. 19, 2021, Kent Police officers were dispatched to Meeker Street Bar and Grill, 1721 W. Meeker St., for multiple reports of a shooting, according to charging papers.

Police found a small crowd in the parking lot surrounding two men who had been shot. A then 36-year-old man had four gunshot wounds. He told officers he was in his baby mother’s Cadillac SUV when a man shot him. He said he got out of the car and the man got in and drove the vehicle away.

A then 23-year-old man had a gunshot wound to his shoulder. He told police that he and two other men came to Circle K, just east of the bar, to get gas. He said his friend, Hill, was still in the car and had been fatally shot. Both men were transported to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle for treatment.

Witnesses told police that a man, later identified as Dixon, appeared to be trying to steal the Cadillac and that shots were fired prior to the vehicle leaving at a high rate of speed westbound on West Meeker Street. An officer was traveling on Reith Road at about 2:40 a.m. looking for the Cadillac when he was flagged down by a pedestrian about a man lying facedown in a gutter along 38th Avenue South.

The officer observed a gunshot wound to the man’s head and he was deceased. That man was later identified as Hill. Shortly after Hill’s body was found, officers a few blocks away found a Cadillac XT6 SUV parked unoccupied in the 3800 block of South 253rd Street.

The driver’s side window was partially rolled down and there was a large pool of blood and a fired cartridge casing in the back passenger seat, according to charging documents. Detectives obtained a search warrant and found inside the car four fired .40 caliber cartridge casings, a fired .40 caliber bullet, a sandwich bag of what appeared to be heroin, and oxycodone pills with the brand name of Percocet, commonly referred to on the street as “Perc30’s,” according to police.

Detectives found a fingerprint on the driver’s side rear exterior quarter panel that they identified as matching a fingerprint of Dixon. Surveillance video from residences in the West Hill area showed a man walking away from the Cadillac and later being picked up by a black sedan.

Detectives later interviewed one of the shooting victims who told them that on the night of the shooting they drove to Circle K to get wrapping papers for rolling marijuana joints. They were at the gas pumps for less than a minute when a man walked up, opened the rear passenger door and began firing into the vehicle.

A day later, detectives received a tip about a man bragging about robbing and shooting people and stealing their car and that the man was at the Morning Glory Motel in Bellingham. Police observed surveillance video of the man leaving the motel and getting into a Toyota Rav4.

After circulating a bulletin to local law enforcement and reviewing jail booking photographs, detectives identified the man as Dixon. Detectives located Facebook pages for Dixon and one of the injured shooting victims. They discovered the man was a Facebook friend with Dixon. They searched the injured man’s cellphone and less than three hours before the shooting saw text messages from a “Joe” requesting to meet.

Police also tracked down another sighting of Dixon on Sept. 21, 2021 at the Muckleshoot Casino in Auburn. Auburn Police responded to an assault after casino security broke up a fight between two men. One of the men, related to the shooting victims, found Dixon and reportedly assaulted him.

In a follow-up interview with one of the shooting victims, detectives asked the man if he knew Dixon. The man said he did but didn’t know why he shot at him.

Eventually, detectives tracked down Dixon in Snohomish County. On Sept. 27, 2021, police tried to take him into custody at a Safeway parking lot when he reportedly rammed his vehicle into unmarked police vehicles. SWAT officers fired shots at him and hit him once in the lower back.

Police took Dixon into custody and he was transported to Harborview Medical Center. Kent detectives tried to interview Dixon the next day at the hospital. When a detective asked him if he would willing to talk about the incident in Kent, he replied, “No, not without my attorney present.”