Tumwater shooter to serve 7 years in prison

Jamel A. Soliman was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in prison after shooting a man near a Tumwater hotel in April.

The victim survived, and Soliman pleaded guilty to second-degree assault and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm. The 37-year-old Thurston County man entered his plea before Thurston County Superior Court Judge Carol Murphy.

Court documents show that Soliman had been convicted of several crimes in the South Sound since 1992. In 2006, he was convicted in Pierce County of a drive-by shooting. He has multiple convictions for violations of restraining orders.

Soliman was initially charged with first-degree assault, but Deputy Prosecutor Jim Powers said that the charge was changed, in part, because of the victim.

“This is the outcome (the victim) thought was fair,” Powers said.

Second-degree assault is a strike offense in Washington.

Soliman was arrested in the early hours of April 21 after the victim was found at the Best Western hotel at 5188 Capitol Blvd. SE. The victim told police that he had been shot by “some gangster wanna-be,” according to court documents.

The man said he had been at the Best Western using the internet, and decided to walk to the store to get some food. As he was walking back to the hotel, he encountered a man he didn’t know.

The victim said he called out to the man, saying, “Hey buddy, what’s up?” The man responded with profanities, according to court documents.

The man came toward him, the victim reported. They began fighting. The victim said he put the other man in a headlock.

The man pulled out a gun and shot him, the victim reported.

Officers located the suspect and identified him as Soliman. They found a Ruger LCP .380 on the ground near where they found him, according to court documents.

Soliman had been staying at the nearby Motel 6, and officers found hollow-point ammunition, tissues with blood on them, and spots of blood in Soliman’s room, according to court documents.

This story was originally published September 6, 2017 at 5:28 PM with the headline "Tumwater shooter to serve 7 years in prison."