MARYSVILLE Police are looking for a suspect in the shooting death of a man in downtown Marysville on Nov. 11.
Simeon Eugene Whitney, a 35-year-old man, died at Harborview Medical Center after being shot several times following a fight outside Kuhnles Tavern in the southern part of town. Marysville police responded to the sounds of gunfire in the 200 block of State Avenue while on an unrelated call at Comeford Park several blocks away. The victim had been shot several times.
Police are looking for a white male in his mid-40s, about 55 tall and 140 pounds in weight. He had dark hair in a bowl cut and a mustache and is considered armed and dangerous, according to Commander Ralph Krusey of the Marysville Police Department. Anyone with information is asked to call Detectives Shackleton or Smith at 360-363-8326.
Everybody was having a good time, said Linda Best, a six-year employee of the establishment, when the suspect sat at the bar near the door and read a book on astrology, which the police have in custody. She had only seen the man a few times before and he was always quiet and kept to himself. He said he was waiting to pick up his mother from a sewing class, according to Best, who added that he did not have much alcohol to drink. He then started making abusive comments to the victim and was 86ed from the joint. After he left through the back door the victim followed him outside to the parking lot behind a Mexican restaurant next door, she said.
Cheryl Flemmer, an employee who lives in an apartment overlooking the parking lot said she saw the fight when she went out on her porch to investigate the noise. Other employees said the men were the same height but the shooting victim had a 30-pound advantage over the other man. The suspect then went to a pickup truck nearby and got a gun and shot the victim several times.
We heard three shots and he was down, said Tanya Buttke, a day-shift employee who was socializing in her off-duty hours. He never even made it to the back door.
Buttke said employees and customers tried to perform CPR on the victim to no avail. Police responded quickly after the suspect fled in a small white pickup truck, and Flemmer said they would have been able to catch him if they didnt have to deal with a panicking customer at the scene.
Police said the event occurred about 10 minutes past 11 p.m., but six employees and customers said the shooting and fight started about 9:45 p.m. Krusey disagreed with that, saying the nine oclock hour was out of the question. Tavern staff said the victim had been coming to the State Avenue watering hole for about three weeks and had said he was visiting relatives in the area.
The shooting is the second in the downtown area in a week. On Nov. 3 an accidental discharge of a handgun sent a bullet through the wall of a State Avenue security office and hit a 24-year-old Arlington man in the shoulder. The victim of that incident was working in a nail salon next door and was hit in the shoulder. The business was open to the public and there were customers present, including a young girl who was there with her mother, according to the Marysville police.
The victim was transported to an Everett hospital and had surgery for his wound, which was not life-threatening, according to Krusey.
The round was fired from a personal gun owned by a supervisor at the adjacent business, who checked the salon to see if anyone was injured. Krusey did not know why the gun discharged.
I dont believe he was cleaning it, Krusey said.
The man was detained by police that night and could face several charges. His case was forwarded to Snohomish County Prosecutors, according to Krusey.
They are actually talking to the prosecutor to figure out how many cases to file against him, Krusey said.