A Seattle Police Department employee has been charged with felony assault after shooting a man during a road rage incident last Saturday near Federal Way on Interstate 5.
Peter L. Garrido, 30, was charged June 18 with first-degree assault for the use a deadly weapon in the June 13 shooting which seriously injured a man who was driving with his wife and baby. The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office rush-filed the felony charge, according to charging documents.
Garrido works as a records technician for the Seattle Police Department.
Garrido’s arraignment, where he’s expected to enter a plea, is scheduled for 9 a.m. Wednesday, July 1 at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent. His bail has been set to $300,000 due to his “evasive behavior” after the shooting by removing the license plates from his car and hiding evidence when he fled the scene.
Around 1 p.m. June 13, Washington State Patrol and South King Fire and Rescue personnel responded to reports of a shooting near the South 320th Street exit on I-5. A 30-year-old man was shot once in the abdomen.
The man’s wife and baby were also in the car, but they were not injured, said Washington State Patrol Trooper Van Cleave.
According to the charging documents, Garrido and the other man were involved in a road rage incident while driving southbound on I-5.
The man pulled to the right shoulder of the freeway with the intent to let Garrido pass him, but Garrido pulled to the shoulder and stopped behind the man.
The man exited his car to approach Garrido, and told troopers he saw Garrido smiling and taking pictures of him, the documents said. As the man got closer to Garrido’s vehicle, Garrido allegedly pulled a handgun from his glove box and shot the man in the upper abdomen area.
Paramedics transported the man to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle in serious, but stable condition. Before Garrido fled the scene at a high rate of speed in a black Mazda, he allegedly flipped off the man’s wife, documents said.
Garrido then called out sick from his job with the Seattle Police Department, the charges said.
A warrant for a Bellevue residence was obtained and served around 5:40 p.m. June 15. Detectives later found his vehicle backed in to the driveway at his residence with both the front and rear license plates removed.
The plates, and a single fired 9mm shell casing, were located in the backseat area of the car, the documents said. When searching Garrido’s bedroom, officers also found a 9mm Glock 19 handgun as well as 9mm magazines and ammunition.
Seattle Police did not immediately return request for comment about Garrido’s current employment status.
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