[ad_1]
A 22-year-old Yakima man accused of shooting a man with his ex-girlfriend Friday on West Knob Hill Boulevard is being held in lieu of $150,000 bail.
Although Ryan Cole Slavens has no prior felony convictions, Yakima County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Swann said bail should be granted based on witness accounts and police reports of the West Valley incident.
“It’s really quite — what’s the word I’m looking for — out of control and worrisome, to say the least,” Swann said.
Police were called to a man shot in the 7900 block of West Nob Hill Boulevard around 3:15 p.m. Officers found a 23-year-old man in the street near the South 80th Avenue intersection with a gunshot wound to the abdomen, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Slavens was at the scene and knelt on the ground with his hand on his head, putting the gun down when police arrived, the affidavit said. Slavens also has a concealed pistol license, according to the affidavit.
The injured man was taken to Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital and is expected to survive, police said. While tending to the victim, police found a handgun in his jacket pocket and took it into evidence, according to the affidavit.
The woman in the victim’s car told police that Slavens was her ex-boyfriend and that Slavens was the victim’s friend until she and the victim began dating, the affidavit said.
When Slavens was spotted in his Ford F-350 pickup truck on South 72nd Avenue, the pair dropped off at the Dairy Queen on West Knob Hill Boulevard, the truck stopped in the middle of the road, the affidavit said. The victim then drove past the Slavens through the Meadowbrook Mall parking lot, but as they returned to West Knob Hill Boulevard, the Slavens came up behind them and crashed into the back of the victim’s Toyota Matrix as it stopped at the intersection of South 80th. Avenue, the affidavit said.
The victim got out of his car and hit the driver’s window of Slavens’ truck, the woman and other witnesses said, and Slavens shot the man as he stumbled into his car, the affidavit said.
Witnesses, including a passenger in Slavens’ truck, said the victim had nothing in his hand when he knocked on the window, according to the affidavit.
Slavens was booked into the Yakima County Jail on a charge of first-degree assault over the weekend with initial bail set at $250,000.
“This is a gentleman who started a road rage incident, intentionally hit another vehicle and shot another person in the chest as he approached,” Bowman said. “He shot a man in the chest for talking to his ex-girlfriend.”
Slavens is awaiting trial on a third-degree malicious mischief charge in Sela Municipal Court, court records show. In that incident, Slavens backed up a man’s vehicle for allegedly having sex with his girlfriend, smeared the tires with gravel and damaged the other man’s car, according to a YPD affidavit.
Defense attorney Beth Verkamp argued that Slavens had connections in the community, no prior criminal history, and that Slavens had a defense of self-defense because he knew the victim had a history of possessing firearms. Bail should not exceed $50,000, she said.
Swan reduced preliminary bail to $150,000 and issued orders prohibiting Slaves from having contact with the victim or his ex-girlfriend.
[ad_2]
Source link
