Update: Homicide victim discovered on Capitol Way Monday

BY MATT BATCHELDOR | The Olympian • Published November 16, 2009

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A man is dead after a shooting early Monday at Capitol Way and 18th Avenue in Olympia's South Capitol neighborhood, and police are investigating it as a homicide.

At about 2:45 a.m., police received "numerous" calls from residents that said they thought they heard gunshots, said Olympia Police Cmdr. Tor Bjornstad. When police arrived they found the deceased man, white and about 40 years old, lying in the outside southbound lane of Capitol Way. Multiple shell casings were scattered across Capitol Way.

Details are few. The man's name and cause of death has not been released; that will come later from the Thurston County Coroner's office. Bjornstad would not say whether the man was shot, just that "it's apparent that he met with homicidal violence."

Bjornstad said he didn't know about a suspect or motive for the shooting, just that there was a small black car that fled the area. He said he's not aware of witnesses.

City Manager Steve Hall, after talking with Police Chief Gary Michel, concluded the deceased man was known to police for "bad behaviors" and that the shooting was not random. He is getting information out to neighbors.

"The general public need not worry based on what we know so far," Hall said.

Greg Klein, president of the South Capitol Neighborhood Association, said he spoke with Hall and that the shooting wasn't random.

"All I know is that he (the deceased man) was known to the police department ... that he had suspicious activity and (was) drug-related."

Klein said that there have been drug-related problems in the neighborhood before. "I hope this is just kind of an isolated incident," he said.

Capitol Way was closed from 19th Avenue to Maple Park Drive while police investigated. A few neighbors walked by the scene.

Rohan Theiss, a contractor who lives in the neighborhood and is installing siding on a nearby house, was alarmed. "I'm fairly shocked... to see a homicide in this neighborhood and this type," he said. "I don't quite know what to make of it."