Robert Lee Mauzay, 74, was out for an afternoon walk in SeaTac when a man fleeing from police in a Dodge Charger struck him before crashing the car into a tree.
Witnesses told a Washington State Patrol trooper who arrived on the scene of the Oct. 26 collision that the driver had fled on foot and that a man was under the front of the vehicle. The trooper provided aid to Mauzay, who was then transported by paramedics to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. He suffered a fractured hip, fractured knee and a bleeding in his brain. He died Oct. 30 in the hospital from the multiple injuries.
King County prosecutors last week charged Gerald Allen Cowles Jr., 32, of Seattle, with second-degree murder, felony hit and run and unlawful possession of a firearm. Cowles remained in custody this week in the county jail at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent with bail set at $2 million. He is scheduled to be arraigned on Nov. 12.
“Beyond the incalculable harm that the defendant has already caused to the victim and his family and the clear danger that he presents to the community at large, the defendant’s actions and past behavior also demonstrate that he is an extreme flight risk,” wrote Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Daniel Carew in charging documents.
Cowles had a state Department of Corrections escape warrant at the time of the incident. He is on state Department of Corrections supervision as a result of 2007 convictions for first-degree rape of a child and first-degree child molestation in King County. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison for those crimes and released in April 2017, according to charging papers. Since his release and being placed on community custody, he has 11 violations, primarily for failing to report. His most recent violation was Aug. 16 when he either let the battery die or cut off the GPS monitor that he had been ordered to wear beginning on Aug. 10.
The incident on Oct. 30 began when a trooper pulled over Cowles on a traffic stop along Interstate 5 in Kent near State Route 516. The name the driver provided to the trooper and the state Department of Licensing picture didn’t match the driver of the car, according to a computer check. The trooper returned to the car and asked the man again for his name. The driver then put the vehicle in drive and fled the scene.
The trooper followed with the vehicle emergency lights and siren activated. The fleeing car exited the freeway at South 200th Street and proceeded southbound on Military Road South. The trooper pursued with speeds reaching 85 mph in a 35 mph zone. When the pursuit neared the stop light at the intersection of Military Road and South 216th Street, the trooper terminated the pursuit and slowed down because he believed the driver would not stop for the red light. He then lost sight of the car. The trooper continued south on Military Road and when he reached South 220th Street, he saw the same vehicle crashed into a medium-sized tree on the corner.
Troopers located Cowles in the backyard of a residence along 32nd Avenue South, which is a dead-end cul-de-sac off of South 220th Street. Two troopers pursued Cowles as he climbed over fences and through several backyards before he was finally taken into custody. Cowles had a backpack with him that had a loaded handgun inside. The serial number on the gun showed it had been stolen out of Everett in August 2019.
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