Two Bellingham men are facing felony charges for alleged drive-by shooting Monday
Two Bellingham men are facing multiple felony charges after they allegedly took part in a drive-by shooting Monday night that sent several bullets into a Barkley neighborhood apartment complex and nearly hit a woman.
Carlos Antonio Machado, 22, and Dylan Roy Morris, 22, were each charged May 18 in Whatcom County Superior Court with first-degree assault, drive-by shooting, second-degree malicious mischief, reckless endangerment and obstructing.
Machado and Morris made their first appearances in court Wednesday afternoon, but information on their hearing was not immediately available.
Shortly before 11 p.m. on May 16, Bellingham police were called to the 3100 block of Studio Lane for the report of multiple shots fired. Multiple people told dispatchers they heard around five gunshots, someone screaming that they were shot and a vehicle leaving, according to court records.
When police arrived, witnesses told officers they saw a white Ford Ranger leave Studio Lane at a high rate of speed eastbound on East Sunset Drive after firing around five shots from a gun, the records state.
A woman came out of her apartment and told police she had been shot at and that bullets entered her apartment. Police found at least four shell casings on the ground and at least three bullet holes inside the woman’s apartment, records show.
One of the bullets shattered the woman’s sliding glass door and another one was recovered about five to 10 feet away from where the woman was laying inside her apartment. The woman said the bullet almost hit her in the head, according to court records.
Three people told police they were walking on East Sunset Drive back to the apartment complex on Studio Lane around 7 p.m. when a white Ford truck with a black hood and black tailgate started following them. The three people said two men in their 20s to 30s were inside the truck and started getting into an altercation with one of the people walking. The witnesses said one of the men in the truck had a buzz cut and the other had shaggy hair, according to court records.
The three people told police the men in the truck followed them back to the apartment complex and yelled threats about “coming back with guns” before leaving, records show.
One of the witnesses who had been walking told police she heard five gunshots coming from outside shortly before 11 p.m.. When she went outside, she heard one of the men she had been walking with earlier say he had just been shot at. The woman told police she also saw the same Ford Ranger that had followed them earlier leaving the area quickly, court records state.
Multiple other witnesses said they also heard around five gunshots and witnessed a white Ford Ranger leaving the scene, the records show.
Police later found the Ford Ranger near the 2300 block of Mt. Baker Highway, but when the officer activated his emergency lights and attempted to catch up to the Ford Ranger, the truck turned its lights off. The truck then turned onto East 23rd Avenue and both the driver and passenger fled on foot, according to court records.
A police K-9 was able to locate the two men who had fled, and who were later identified as Machado and Morris. Both admitted to being in the truck, which was registered to Morris, the records state.
Machado told police he was the driver of the truck, while Morris said he was the passenger. Both Machado and Morris denied shooting a firearm, court records state.
Machado told police he “didn’t want to speak about anything firearm related,” records state. Morris told police he heard shots fired, but didn’t know who they were from, court documents state. The men told police they were going for a drive and that Morris was drinking, the records show.
Morris is a convicted felon who is prohibited from owning firearms.
No firearm was found inside the vehicle when police searched it, court records state.
In charging documents, police stated the shooting appeared to be “an apparent random attack” where Machado and Morris are accused of shooting at a victim outside the apartment complex and narrowly missing him. The bullets entered a nearby apartment, almost hitting a woman and causing more than $750 worth of damage to her apartment, the records state.
Police stated that Machado’s and Morris’ alleged actions “created a substantial risk of death or serious physical injury” to both the victims, “and the countless number of other residents nearby,” the court records state.
Both Machado and Morris are incarcerated in the Whatcom County Jail in lieu of $150,000 and $250,000 bail, respectively.
