Bellingham police investigating after man reportedly shot while attempting to stop a theft
Bellingham Police are investigating after a man was hospitalized after reportedly being shot early Monday while attempting to stop a theft in the Birchwood neighborhood.
Officers were called at 4:24 a.m. Aug. 23 to the 2800 block of Cottonwood for the report that the man had been shot, Lt. Claudia Murphy told The Bellingham Herald in an email.
According to the Bellingham Police Department’s incident log, the man who was shot was attempting to stop a theft.
Police found the man with a gunshot wound to his leg, Murphy reported, and officers rendered first aid until he was taken to the hospital with injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening.
No more details were available while the incident was being investigated by detectives, “who are working diligently to identify the suspect in this case,” Murphy wrote.
It is the second reported gun-related incident in the neighborhood in a little over a week.
Guillermo Vieyra-Salas, 21, was arrested Aug. 15 after he reportedly fired approximately 30 rounds from a rifle in an apparent drive-by shooting early that morning in the area of the 2700 block of West Maplewood Avenue. He remains in Whatcom County Jail in lieu $400,000 bail.
