A 31-year-old Marysville man is being held in the Snohomish County Jail pending formal charges in connection with the Thursday morning shooting death of a woman in the 16400 block of 48th Avenue West in unincorporated Edmonds.  The suspect had his first court appearance Friday morning, when bail was set at $5 million.

According to documents filed with the court, the incident began early Thursday with a 6:52 a.m. phone call to Snohomish County 911 by a woman in considerable emotional distress. She reported that there was a man with a gun in her home threatening herself, her husband and a second woman whom the caller identified as her mother-in-law. It was later determined that there were also two juvenile children present who were hiding in a closet.

Several gunshots were heard over the phone, and the caller — who was extremely overwrought, crying, speaking in broken English and another language — told the dispatcher, “My husband has blood. He was shot.” The dispatcher then heard a male voice saying, “I’ll take care of you, stop screaming,” followed by a series of additional gunshots at which time the line went quiet and the recording ended with no further conversation from the woman caller.

Units from the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office and Lynnwood Police were dispatched to the scene, where officers initially observed a grey Toyota Rav4 driven by a male leaving the area. They took note of the license number, two officers pursued the car and the others continued to the scene.

Upon arriving at the home, they found one woman — presumed to be the mother-in-law — deceased with a gunshot wound to the head, a second woman with a gunshot wound above her right eye, and a man with two gunshot wounds to the chest.  The man and the woman were transported to Harborview Medical Center, where they remain in critical condition, said Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Courtney O’Keefe.

The two children, a boy and a girl, were found unharmed hiding in a closet, and were taken by Lynnwood officers to the Dawson Place Child Advocacy Center in Everett to be interviewed by officers of the Snohomish County Special Assault Unit.

The officers pursuing the Toyota Rav were led on a circuitous chase ranging from Lynnwood to the Mukilteo Speedway, finally ending at a private home on Norma Beach Road, where the suspect left the vehicle and attempted to escape on foot. He was spotted by WSP aircraft in heavy vegetation and was apprehended there by a police K-9 unit. The car was impounded pending a search warrant.

While in custody, the suspect made spontaneous statements that he was detoxing and needed methadone. He was sweating heavily, displaying discomfort, and was taken to a local hospital for observation.

The suspect has three prior felony convictions including two for residential burglary and one for robbery.

In a related incident earlier the same day, the same suspect was involved in an altercation in a Marysville parking lot in which a 36-year-old male died after sustaining bullet wounds to his head and chest. Witnesses at the scene said they saw the same suspect shoot the victim and then flee in a white Hyundai. According to the witnesses, the suspect shot the victim once and when the victim fell to the ground, the suspect shot him again in the head “execution style.” The incident was also captured on surveillance video from the adjacent apartment complex, which confirmed the witness statements.

The suspect is currently being held on probable cause for a range of offenses, including murder, assault, burglary, vehicle theft and attempt to elude. He is not being named at this time pending the filing of formal charges.

— By Larry Vogel