TACOMA —A man was shot at least five times on New Year’s Day at a motel in Tacoma’s South End neighborhood and briefly declared dead, according to charges filed Thursday against the man suspected of shooting him.
A warrant was issued the same day for the arrest of the suspected shooter, Bryan Jack Crow, 29. He is charged in Pierce County Superior Court with attempted first-degree murder, first-degree assault and first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.
Tacoma Police Department detectives believe Crow is staying in Yakima. According to charging documents, the man he’s accused of shooting is expected to make a full recovery with physical therapy.
Prosecutors allege Crow shot the victim the morning of Jan. 1 at a motel in the 8600 block of South Hosmer Street. A motive in the shooting is not clear. A friend of the victim told police they had been drinking together that evening, and at some point, the victim got into an argument with someone staying in Room 207.
Surveillance video shows a man shooting the victim and then entering Room 207 before leaving with a woman, according to charging documents. Detectives searched that room and found an ID for Crow with a Department of Corrections ID number written on it. The department issues a six-digit ID number to all inmates.
Crow has a history of criminal convictions, including second-degree assault, participating/aiding in a prison riot and possessing an incendiary device, prosecutors wrote in the probable cause document.
Charging documents gave this account of the shooting:
Tacoma Police Department officers were dispatched about 6 a.m. Jan. 1.
A shooting victim was reported to be in Room 204, and officers found a trail of blood in a hallway leading to the room, according to the declaration for determination of probable cause. A woman was screaming inside. She told police the victim was lying behind the door.
In the room, officers found a man with gunshot wounds to his chest, abdomen, both arms and one leg. The man’s breathing was shallow, and officers provided first aid. He was declared dead at 6:47 a.m., but medical personnel then reported he was still alive.
The victim was rushed to surgery and survived.
Police began interviewing witnesses. The woman who was inside the victim’s room said she was good friends with him and that they had been drinking together over the course of the evening. She and another man she was with that night had complained about the guests in Room 207, and she told police that at some point, the victim got in an argument with someone from that room.
Surveillance video from the motel showed a man from Room 207 talking to the victim, according to the probable cause document. It’s not clear where the conversation took place. A detective noted the man approached the victim “in an aggressive posture,” and the victim walked around some railing toward him.
At that point, the man pulled a firearm from his right side, pointed it at the victim and began to fire while walking backward.
“The victim just stood there and ‘absorbs the bullets,’” the probable cause document reads.
The shooter passed the victim and briefly entered Room 207 before running downstairs into the parking lot. A woman exited the room shortly after.
A person staying in the room below the victim’s told police he awoke to the sound of gunshots and went outside, where he saw a man running toward a vehicle. A woman followed, dropped a backpack in the lot and went back to the motel. The man picked it up and ran toward South Hosmer Street.
The woman returned, got in a Subaru and drove out of the parking lot toward the man. Detectives determined the registered owner of that vehicle was Crow’s mother, and she told police he had been in possession of it for about a month.
Surveillance video of the shooting suspect matched DOC photos of Crow, including a “very distinctive tattoo” on the side of his face, according to the probable cause document.
