King County prosecutors charged a 23-year-old Kent man with second-degree murder and first-degree assault for allegedly shooting two men outside a Seattle bar in White Center over a dispute about a vehicle that crashed into a parked car.
Augustino Palepale Jr. is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges Aug. 6 at the King County Courthouse in Seattle. He remains in custody at the King County Correctional Facility in Seattle with bail set at $2 million, according to jail records.
Palepale allegedly fatally shot James Edward Sears, 52, and injured the 26-year-old son of Sears, at about 12:38 a.m. July 20 at 9808 16th Ave. SW in unincorporated King County, outside of the Whateke Sports Bar. Sears died of a gunshot wound to the torso, according to the July 22 report by the King County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Just before midnight July 20, the 29-year-old brother of Palepale was involved in a minor accident when he apparently passed out and hit a parked car outside the sports bar, according to charging documents. Palepale was following his brother in another vehicle after a day of partying on a boat and saw the crash.
Sears and his son came over to investigate the crash because the car that was hit belonged to his son. Palepale also came over to the vehicle and got into the driver’s seat while his brother moved to the back seat, where a 27-year-old woman reportedly was passed out.
Sears and his son thought Palepale might drive away and the son told him, “someone has to pay for this,” to which Palepale reportedly said, “I ain’t got nothing for you” and demanded the keys that the son of Sears had taken.
“Give me the keys or I’m going to pop you,” Palepale reportedly said as he pulled out a gun.
“You ain’t going to shoot my son,” Sears said.
Sears tried to grab the gun and his son grabbed onto Palepale, according to charging documents. A video from a nearby business shows a struggle at the driver’s side window of the vehicle and a shot goes off. Sears collapsed to the ground and everyone else ran away.
About six seconds later, Palepale climbed out of the passenger side of the car and reportedly started firing shots at the son of Sears as he ran towards the bar. Palepale reportedly fired seven shots and then fired four more shots.
The son of Sears suffered multiple gunshot wounds but survived.
Palepale returned to his car and began to drive away but pulled over when the first King County Sheriff’s Office deputy arrived on the scene. Deputies took Palepale into custody without incident and he told them he had a gun, which deputies recovered.
Palepale told detectives that when he was he in the driver’s seat of his brother’s car a man came over and yelled at him that he was “gonna beat your ass,” according to charging papers. He said another male came over and tried to grab him and started swinging at him.
Palepale said he then grabbed his gun out of the center console and “started laying off the gunshots,” according to charging documents. He said he then exited the vehicle and fired more shots at the people who grabbed him. He said he was in fear of his life when he was being grabbed and that one of the men said, “I’ll blow you guys down.”
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