CRIME WATCH FOLLOWUP: Alki alley shooting case ends with plea bargain, 2 1/2 years later
(November 2020 photo by WSB’s Patrick Sand)
The longest-running criminal case we’ve been watching is ending with a plea bargain after more than 2 1/2 years. Three days after a man was shot while driving in an Alki alley, a nearby resident, 38-year-old Garrett Heinemann, was charged with first-degree assault and first-degree burglary. Heinemann was arrested shortly after the shooting and has been in jail ever since. This happened in the middle of the day, 12:35 pm on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, November 29, 2020. The case was a head-scratcher; the victim told police that while he had recently moved to the area, he had never met Heinemann, who was reported to have stepped out into the alley in front of the victim’s car, told him to put his hands up, and opened fire. The victim was hit in both arms, neck, and one shoulder, according to court documents. The defendant had no criminal history and had legally owned the pistol for eight years, with a concealed-weapon permit; he had discarded it into the water at Alki shortly after the shooting, before police caught up with him. We’ve read court documents off and on for the entire 2 1/2 years that this case has taken to resolution and have never seen any mention of Heinemann offering an explanation for why he shot the victim.
Court documents say Heinemann pleaded guilty Wednesday to the two original charges – the burglary count is for barging into another neighbor’s residence after the shooting and trying to pistol-whip him. In the agreement, prosecutors are dismissing the “firearms enhancement” that would have added years to the sentence. They are recommending a 9 1/2-year sentence, toward the low end of the “standard” range; the final decision will be up to King County Superior Court Judge David Whedbee on September 1st.
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