Kent Police believe they have tracked down the second man allegedly involved in a dispute that led to the two shooting deaths last year at a Shell service station.
Dale D. Lewis Jr., 19, of Federal Way, remains in the King County jail at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent on an unrelated first-degree robbery charge with bail set at $100,000, according to jail records.
Lewis has not yet been charged in connection with the Aug. 20 shooting deaths of two Shell employees, but he has been identified by Kent detectives as the second person involved in the case, said detective Melanie Robinson on Tuesday.
King County prosecutors charged Leland Dean Russell Jr., 30, of Burien, with two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Carlos Gonzalez, 26, and David Christianson, 52. Russell pleaded not guilty to the charges in September and remains in the county jail in Kent. He is scheduled for a court hearing on Aug. 10, when a trial date could be set or attorneys could ask for more time to prepare the case.
Kent Police claim Lewis is the man who showed up with Russell at the Shell station at the corner of 64th Avenue South and South 212th Street. Lewis reportedly got in a fight with Gonzalez, a store clerk, after being asked to leave because he and Russell were arguing with customers and employees. Russell then allegedly retrieved a gun from his black Cadillac and shot the two employees multiple times at close range. Both employees died at the scene.
Russell and Lewis fled the scene. Kent Police arrested Russell in Burien about eight hours after the shootings. During an interview with detectives after his arrest, Russell admitted to shooting both men, according to court documents. Russell, who is Hispanic, said the dispute started after construction workers at the service station said racial slurs to him and his friend, a black man he identified as “Sac.”
Lewis had remained at-large until Kent Police arrested him on Dec. 28 in connection with a robbery earlier that day of a man after he got off a bus in the 27200 block of Pacific Highway South.
Lewis pleaded not guilty to the first-degree robbery charge and faces a July 6 trial. Dayquan J. Harris faces the same charge for reportedly helping Lewis take the man’s wallet after grabbing, punching and kicking him.
Robinson worked the robbery case and said Lewis had been identified as the second man in the gas station case, but detectives didn’t have enough to arrest him. The involvement of Lewis in the Shell shooting remains under investigation by detectives and prosecutors.
Lewis reportedly lived in Texas before moving last year to Washington and has a criminal history in Texas for delivery of a controlled substance in 2014, public lewdness in 2012, burglary of a vehicle in 2010 and criminal mischief in 2010.
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