An Oak Harbor man accused in a July 2 shooting outside a bar avoided a “third strike” by agreeing to a plea bargain.

Shaunyae Allen, 31, pleaded guilty in Island County Superior Court Sept. 15 to assault in the third degree and unlawful possession of a handgun.

Judge Vickie Churchill agreed to the joint sentence recommendation from the prosecution and defense and sentenced Allen to four years in prison.

Churchill said she was alarmed at the increase in gunplay on Whidbey Island in recent years, saying that it seems like it’s become “an acceptable practice” to pull a gun.

“This community has got to stop reaching for guns to solve their problems,” she said.

Two young people died in gun-related murders in the last couple of years over petty disputes.

Allen was originally charged with second-degree assault for allegedly shooting Willie Rainey, 39, in the chest outside of All Sports Pub and Eatery just before midnight.

Rainey survived the shooting, but ended up being treated at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

Prosecutors originally charged Allen with second-degree assault. A conviction of the charge would have represented a “third strike” and meant a life sentence under the state’s persistent offender law.

Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Eric Ohme explained that he agreed to the plea bargain, with approval from the police, because of big holes in the case. The only person who could even place Allen at the bar that night was Rainey and there was no physical evidence to corroborate his statement, he said.

Allen’s attorney, David Carman of Langley, said the evidence was “exceptionally limited” and the plea bargain was “a hard pill to swallow.” He said the only reason he and his client agreed to the plea bargain was because the risk of a third strike and life sentence if convicted, which Carman called unlikely.

“Other than that, Mr. Allen would have had to drag me kicking and screaming to a plea hearing,” he said.

In 2011, Allen was convicted of assault in the second degree and possession of a stolen firearm. He was the target of a drive-by shooting on New Year’s Eve but then pointed a handgun at a woman he mistakenly thought was somehow connected to the shooting.

The following year, he slashed a man in the throat during a fight at a downtown Oak Harbor nightclub. He was convicted of second-degree assault and was sentenced to two years and two months in prison.

According to the police report in the recent shooting, Rainey told detectives he got into an argument over “girl stuff” with a man, later identified as Allen, at the bar just before midnight. They went outside the bar to fight, Rainey said, but instead Allen ran to his car and retrieved a handgun, according to the report by Detective Lisa Rang-Powers.

Rainey claimed he told Allen he wasn’t afraid to die and ran at him to grab the gun, but Allen shot him in the chest before he got there, the report states.

Rainey then walked back into the bar and asked a friend to drive him to the hospital. The woman told police that she agreed to drive Rainey but didn’t know he had been shot until they were on their way. She called 911 after he started sweating and his eyes rolled back into his head.

The first officer to the scene found a gunshot entrance wound on Rainey’s upper chest and an exit wound on his back.