On Friday afternoon, the Snohomish County Prosecutor filed documents in Superior Court formally charging 21-year-old Alex Matthew Waggoner of Edmonds with second-degree murder in the Jan. 3 shooting death of ride-share driver Abdikadir Gedi Shariif near the intersection of 236th Street Southwest and Edmonds Way.

According to the charging documents, Waggoner was crossing Edmonds Way when Shariif, who was driving his vehicle, did not see the defendant and nearly collided with him. When Shariif rolled down the window and began to apologize, the defendant drew a firearm and shot into the vehicle approximately eleven times, killing the victim.

Several civilian witnesses who were in the area at the time of the shooting subsequently made statements to police that corroborate these events. A dashcam video from the victim’s vehicle confirmed that as the victim rolled down his window and began to say “I’m sorry,” the suspect immediately began shooting several times before running off. Witnesses described the suspect as a “younger white or Hispanic male with dark curly hair, wearing a black hoodie, black and white shoes, and black pants.”

Officers responding to the scene reported finding 11, 9-mm shell casings.  Shariif was transported to Harborview but was later pronounced dead.

As part of the investigation, Edmonds police began soliciting the public for tips that might aid in identifying the shooter. One of these came from a woman who had dated the father of Waggoner’s girlfriend. She told police that upon hearing of the crime, she “immediately thought of the defendant because he fit the description, lived in the area…had access to firearms, and had…an anger problem where he could fly off the handle at any moment.”  She also reported that the defendant lived with his girlfriend’s father in a close-by apartment complex.

Using this information, detectives began looking into Waggoner as a potential suspect and found that his driver’s license photo matched the general description given by witnesses. Additionally, he had been involved in at least 10 different Edmonds police calls since October 2020, and in the most recent incident was found to have a 9mm Glock model 26 handgun on his person with the ability to fire 11 total bullets.

In a previous contact with the defendant, police observed a Ring motion-activated video/audio doorbell on his exterior apartment door. Based on this, police issued a search warrant for footage from the night of the incident. The recordings showed the defendant leaving the apartment approximately five minutes before the shooting, dressed as witnesses described him. The next video from five minutes later – the exact time the 911 report of the shooting was received – showed Waggoner “frantically running up the stairs to the apartment saying ‘baby, holy sh–! Let me in! Let me in right now! Oh my God!’” The distance between the apartment and the shooting site was “mere blocks.”

Based on this information, police began surveilling the defendant’s apartment, and on Jan. 10 took him into custody. When arrested, he was found to have two loaded firearms on his person and was wearing a ballistics body armor vest.

He was transported back to the Edmonds Police Department, where he agreed to be interviewed. He admitted to police he had been drinking alcohol that evening and had left the apartment to buy more. He stated he was crossing Edmonds Way when a vehicle nearly hit him in the crosswalk and had to side-step in order not to be struck by the car. He immediately pulled his gun and shot the driver. He stated he did not know how many times he shot, but thought he emptied the magazine. He also stated that he was initially scared when the vehicle almost struck him but was adamant that he had “grossly overreacted and was sorry for what he did.”

Following the interview, Waggoner wrote a letter to the victim’s family which read:

“I know this letter might not mean anything to you but I deeply regret what I’ve done to your loved one. No amount of money or time will reset this, and I am well aware of that but I still would prefer to do anything in my power to help in any way I can. No words can describe how horrible I feel about this and I wish I could take that day back. I am just so sorry and I don’t know if I can fix anything. That’s all I want to do is make things right but I know these actions are irreversible. -Alex”

Waggoner is scheduled to be formally arraigned on Monday, when he will enter his plea, and the court will set bail and a trial date. The prosecutor plans to request $1 million bail.

— By Larry Vogel