Police say this Bellingham man fired at least four shots from a handgun at neighbors
A 26-year-old Bellingham man is being held in the Whatcom County Jail on $500,000 bail after allegedly shooting at neighbors inside an apartment building.
Adrian Martinez-Medina, 26, was booked on second-degree assault, first-degree burglary and unlawful possession of a firearm after turning himself in on Thursday, April 1.
No one was injured in the Saturday, March 27, shooting on the 4000 block of Northwest Avenue, according to Bellingham Police Department Lt. Claudia Murphy in an email to The Bellingham Herald.
Murphy said the suspect was known to the people inside the apartment in an earlier Herald story.
Officers responded at 1:20 a.m. Saturday to several calls about gunfire.
Investigators say Martinez-Medina entered an apartment and fired at least four shots from a handgun at people, including a visiting close acquaintance, Murphy said.
Martinez-Medina lives elsewhere in the complex and was upset his acquaintance was at the other apartment, Murphy said.
Murphy said Martinez-Medina knocked on the neighbor’s door and when the renter opened the door, he shouted for his acquaintance to leave.
Another person in the apartment asked Martinez-Medina to leave and, when he refused, tried to push him out of the apartment, said Murphy.
The commotion at the front door caused a third person to step into the area by the front door, she said. As Martinez-Medina was being pushed out of the apartment, he pulled out a handgun and fired blindly into the apartment at least four times as he stuck his arm around the closing front door, according to the investigation.
Police reported finding four bullet holes in the wall across from the front door and four shell casings in the living area of the apartment.
Martinez-Medina previously pleaded guilty to a drive-by shooting in 2016 and is prohibited from possessing a firearm.
