A 16-year-old with ties to gang allegedly recorded himself opening fire last week on a rival near a Pasco gas station.
A video from a social media post shows a first-person view from the shooting that left a 15-year-old wounded about 7:15 p.m. on Aug. 12, according to court documents.
Aaron Ruiz Coria is being held in the Benton-Franklin Juvenile Detention Center in Kennewick in lieu of $250,000 bail. Prosecutors have charged him with first-degree assault and illegally possessing a gun.
Washington state law allows any 16- or 17-year-old accused of first-degree assault to be charged as an adult without holding a special hearing.
He appeared by video Tuesday in Franklin County Superior Court and pleaded innocent. His trial is scheduled for Oct. 9.
This is the first felony that the teen is accused of in Washington, according to court documents. However, police contend he’s been involved in other gang-related shootings and assaults.
Police arrested Ruiz Coria based on a combination of videos showing him in the neighborhood, witness accounts and a runaway report filed by his mother.
The video was posted on social media after police identified him as the shooter, said court documents. It reportedly shows a black, extended magazine in the hand of a person firing the shots.
A juvenile justice employee learned about the video and told detectives.
The document doesn’t say whether it shows the 15-year-old being hit. The video has yet to be made public in connection with the charges.
Drive-by shooting
Pasco police were initially called on Aug. 12 because a 15-year-old suffered a gunshot wound to the hip.
A witness said the 15-year-old “threw ‘gang signs’” at Ruiz Coria, who stopped near the Circle K gas station at the corner of Chapel Hill and Broadmoor boulevards.
The rival gang member told Ruiz Coria that he didn’t care if he was shot. Then Ruiz Coria allegedly fired twice.
Security video from a nearby home showed a black sedan stop and two people get out.
Several minutes later after the shooting, the two were seen on the video running back to the car and speeding away.
Investigators later learned that Ruiz Coria’s girlfriend owns a car matching the one seen on video.
Police tracked Ruiz Coria using his cell phone signal and found him near a Richland apartment building, where he was arrested.
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