BY DEAN A. RADFORD
Two occupants in a 1999 Mazda 626 were shot multiple times in an apparent road-rage incident at about 10:30 p.m. Monday on southbound State Route 167 near South 277th Street, according to the State Patrol.
State troopers know that the suspect vehicle was a dark passenger car with at least three occupants, one wearing a red bandana.
Troopers found the Mazda in the ditch at the entrance ramp from 15th Street Northwest in Auburn, although the shooting apparently occurred closer to South 277th Street.
The Mazda had been shot at least 13 times.
The driver and a front-seat passenger were shot in their lower extremities and were taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with non-life-threatening injuries.
The Mazda’s driver is a 21-year-old Roy man and the passenger is a 20-year-old Tacoma woman.
The two rear-seat passengers were not injured, according to the State Patrol.
It wasn’t immediately clear what led to the confrontation, but witnesses say the incident occurred several miles back on SR 167 when one vehicle may have cut off the other right before both vehicles began driving aggressively, according to the State Patrol.
At one point witnesses say the occupants displayed “gang signs” right before the shooting started.
Southbound SR 167 was closed from South 277th Street to State Route 18 for approximately four hours so that troopers and a Seattle Police Department bomb and arson tracking dog could search the freeway for evidence.
Any witness information to this incident is asked to call State Patrol detective Russ Haake at 425-401-7717.
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