The players in a New Year’s Eve drive-by shooting and a related assault in Oak Harbor have all pleaded guilty to their respective crimes.
Island County Deputy Prosecutor Eric Ohme said he was able to reach plea bargains over the last few months with the three men involved in the unusual case.
Oakland, Calif., resident Christopher Williams, also known as “Dookie,” pleaded guilty to one count of drive-by shooting. Williams, 23, was sentenced to three years and three months in prison, which is the top of the standard sentencing range.
Oak Harbor resident Timothy Howard, 30, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit assault in the second degree. He was sentenced to 70 days in jail.
Shaunyae Allen, a 25-year-old man known as “Chytown,” pleaded guilty to assault in the second degree and possession of a stolen firearm. He was the victim in the drive-by shooting, but afterward pointed a gun at the wrong person in a bungled retaliation attempt. The judge sentenced Allen to a year and five months in prison.
It took detectives in the Oak Harbor Police Department weeks to sort out the tangled details from reluctant witnesses.
The violence started outside the Element Nightclub at closing time. Allen got into a fight with a group of women and sustained a head injury after someone hit him over the head with a pink bottle.
One of the young women involved in the fight called her nephew, Williams, and told him that Allen had hit her. Williams and his uncle, Howard, went out looking for revenge against Allen.
According to Ohme, Howard apparently thought he and his nephew were going to beat up Allen and he didn’t know Williams was armed with a handgun.
Allen was driving home in his girlfriend’s car when the two men in a green Jeep SUV pulled up next to his car on NW Cathlamet Drive. Williams was in the Jeep’s passenger seat and shot at Allen, hitting the car twice but missing Allen.
The police later recovered two bullets from the car and four empty shell casings on NW Cathlamet. The casings were identified as Hornady .380-caliber autos.
After being shot at, Allen drove to his apartment on Crosby Avenue. He happened to see a woman, who he mistakenly thought was involved in the fight at the nightclub, standing outside a neighboring apartment building. He walked over, pointed a gun at her and uttered a threatening remark.
According to Ohme, both Williams and Howard fled to Oakland after the shooting. Howard returned on his own, but Williams was arrested on an Island County warrant.
