A Friday night out at Gator’s Sports Bar and Grill in Kent quickly turned into a nightmare for a 23-year-old woman and her friends.
As of Tuesday, Kent Police were still looking for the Kent woman’s boyfriend, who reportedly shot the woman in the stomach and injured her inside the bar, 21609 84th Ave. S., at about 12:32 a.m. on Nov. 18.
King County prosecutors have charged Joseph A. Lasseson, 28, of Federal Way, with first-degree assault, second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm and domestic violence felony violation of a court order for his actions at the bar, according to court documents.
Once police take Lasseson into custody, Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Christina P. Miyamasu has requested bail be set at $500,000 because of his extensive history of domestic violence, including convictions for fourth-degree assault in 2017, tampering with a witness in 2010, harassment in 2008 and attempted malicious mischief in 2008. He has a tentative arraignment date of Dec. 5, at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent.
Lasseson has 13 prior orders for the protection of this victim, two other women and one man under 10 case numbers, Miyamasu said.
“Here, the defendant was with the victim in violation of an active no contact order when he got upset with her, took out his handgun, put it to her neck, and then pointed it at her abdomen and fired,” Miyamasu wrote in the charging papers. “He then tried to drag her out of the bar when several good Samaritans intervened to render aid. Before fleeing, the defendant punched one good Samaritan.”
In addition to Lasseson’s domestic violence history, he has convictions for obstruction in 2017, DUI in 2014, attempted felony harassment in 2008, reckless driving in 2010, five cases of driving while license suspended between 2007 and 2014, and violation of the uniformed controlled substance act in 2007.
Numerous patrol officers arrived at Gator’s after reports of a shooting on a late Friday night, early Saturday morning. The victim told an officer that her boyfriend and father of her child had shot her during an argument. Paramedics transported the woman to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle where she underwent emergency surgery.
A woman friend of the victim was with her in the bar. That friend suggested that they all go back to her boyfriend’s house to continue a birthday celebration and made the statement, “you know where he lives.”
Lasseson apparently overhead that comment and became angry that his girlfriend knew where the friend’s boyfriend lives. The two started to argue and then Lasseson reportedly removed his gun from the victim’s purse, pushed it up against her throat and then shot her once in the stomach.
Lasseson reportedly had the pistol in his front pants pocket when he entered the bar, according to the police report. He later removed the gun from his pants and placed it in his girlfriend’s purse.
Video surveillance footage from the bar captured the incident from numerous camera angles, according to court documents. The victim sat at a small table against the west wall near the pool tables. Lasseson stood next to her and could be seen taking a small black pistol out of the victim’s purse and pressing it against the victim’s neck for about three seconds before shooting her in the stomach. The victim fell off the chair and onto the floor.
Lasseson tried to take the woman out of the bar before patrons intervened. Eventually, he fled the bar with another woman, who apparently knows him. He then entered the right rear passenger seat of a vehicle before it left the parking lot.
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