Bellingham gunshot victim requires surgery on day that sees 3 separate shooting incidents
Bellingham detectives are investigating a shooting incident that occurred Sunday evening near Forest and Cedar Park and resulted in the victim needing surgery for their wounds.
The shooting was one of three incidents in which officers found evidence of gunshots on Sunday.
Officers were called at approximately 9:30 p.m. Aug. 15 to the area of North Forest and Cedar streets for the report of shots fired in the area, Lt. Claudia Murphy told The Bellingham Herald in an email. A caller reported a person had just been shot with a handgun and a vehicle with several people inside left the scene.
When police arrived, they found nothing of note, Murphy reported.
But approximately 25 minutes later, officers were called to St. Joseph hospital for a gunshot victim in the ER, according to Murphy, adding that the victim needed surgery for “non-life-threatening” injuries.
The case remains under investigation, Murphy reported, and more information will not be released until and if detectives identify suspects in the incident.
At 10:46 p.m., police were called to the 4100 block of Meridian for the report of another incident involving gunfire. Responding officers found a single spent casing, Murphy reported, but did not find further evidence, damage or victims.
Those two incidents came hours after Bellingham police arrested a suspect in a drive-by shooting early Sunday in the Birchwood neighborhood in which police received no reports of injuries.
According to the Bellingham Police Department’s incident log, only one other report of shots fired has been investigated so far this month — Aug. 6 in the 1200 block of West Bakerview Road.
So far this year and including Sunday’s events, the incident log lists 27 incidents that mention gunshots within Bellingham, though many incidents did not state if officers confirmed if shots were actually fired and two were listed as involving BB or pellet guns. The incident near Forest and Cedar Park Sunday was only the third this year that mentioned somebody suffering a gunshot wound.
The 2020 Washington State National Incident-Based Reporting System annual report showed Bellingham had 57 crimes involving a firearm last year, while all Whatcom County law enforcement agencies combined for 132 crimes involving a gun. Those numbers in Bellingham were down from 66 in the 2019 report, while all of Whatcom had an identical 132.
