Bellevue Police Arrest Woman Accused of Firing Shots Outside Downtown Restaurant

Yesterday, Bellevue Police investigators arrested a female accused of firing shots outside a busy downtown Bellevue restaurant last week. During the early morning hours of September 24^th,  multiple Bellevue Police Officers responded to a disturbance in downtown Bellevue. Two groups that had previously been involved in a physical altercation earlier in the night were engaged in another physical altercation on the sidewalk in front of Earl’s restaurant. During the second incident, a woman involved in the fight drew a semi-automatic pistol from her purse. The woman fired two rounds, one in an upward direction that struck an overhead glass awning, and a second round that was fired downward through a grate. Both groups then fled in multiple directions. Police recovered two spent shell casings and a live round of ammunition from the scene. Kemper Security was able to provide police with surveillance video of the incident. Bellevue Police detectives were immediately assigned to the case, and were able to use the information provided at the scene to quickly identify the female that fired the gun during the incident as a 43-year-old Des Moines resident.  Yesterday, the Bellevue Police SWAT team conducted an operation in Des Moines and took the suspect into custody without incident. At the time of her arrest, she was in possession of a semi-automatic pistol. Clothing items she was wearing at the time of the shooting were also recovered. The woman was booked into the King County Jail for malicious mischief first degree. Additional misdemeanors for unlawful discharge of a firearm and reckless endangerment will be filed as well.

The above surveillance image clearly shows the muzzle flash of the firearm as the suspect fires the gun without regard to the safety of others or of the residents who live and work in the high-rise buildings above her. Bellevue Police Chief Wendell Shirley, speaking about this arrest, states: “Bellevue is NOT the place to come to engage in this type of behavior.” Shirley continued, “The Bellevue Police Department will immediately hold accountable those that choose to engage in violent acts of this type in our city.”