2 injured in west Olympia shooting, and police ask for help finding a suspect

Two men were shot on a sidewalk outside of a west Olympia home late Monday, and Olympia Police are looking for a suspect in the case.

Officials are asking the public for help finding Curtis Rudolph, 32, of Olympia, for investigation of first-degree assault.

“His whereabouts are unknown, but he should be considered armed at this time,” Olympia Police Lt. Sam Costello wrote in a news release issued Tuesday. “There is no reason to believe that this incident was random.”

Police were dispatched to the 900 block of Fern Street Southwest at 10:42 p.m Monday for a report of shots fired, according to a Thurston County dispatcher.

Olympia Fire medics discovered two men who had been shot and they were transported to Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, deputy fire chief Greg Wright told The Olympian. Both men are expected to survive, Costello said.

According to police, two men had gone to the home for a reason that is not yet known. During the visit, Rudolph, who lives at the home, produced a handgun and allegedly shot one of the men in the leg, Costello said. Then the man who was shot used his own handgun to shoot at Rudolph. Another man at the scene, Rudolph’s brother, was struck by that gunfire multiple times.

Rudolph fled the scene, and Costello said police don’t believe Rudolph was hit by the gunfire.

Sam Wright, who lives in an apartment building near where the shooting took place, said he called 911 after he heard gunshots. Then he and several other people, including an off-duty State Patrol trooper, helped one of the gunshot victims who was on the sidewalk.

“We were stopping the bleeding on his leg, and just trying to keep him down, so he didn’t bleed out,” Wright told The Olympian.

Police closed Ninth Avenue Southwest and Fern Street Southwest for a couple of hours for the investigation, Wright said.

“It was wild,” he added. “That was my very first night in my new apartment. It was like, ‘Welcome to the neighborhood.’”

Costello said Rudolph has a criminal history, and was most recently arrested and booked into jail on suspicion of second-degree arson following an RV fire last Thursday on Cooper Point Road Southwest. The RV was linked to a 20-year-old woman who was arrested a day earlier on suspicion of theft of a car that had belonged to Rudolph. The woman told police that she and Rudolph were friends and that the fire was set “in retaliation for stealing (his) vehicle.”

Rudolph is out on bail, and his arraignment in the arson case is set for Jan. 16.

Anyone with information on Rudolph’s location is asked to call the Olympia Police Department at 360-753-8300 or 911.

“Multiple family members have tried to contact him, to try to get him to turn himself in,” Costello said. “We’re pretty concerned about his behavior.”

This story was originally published January 9, 2018 at 7:51 AM with the headline "2 injured in west Olympia shooting, and police ask for help finding a suspect."