Grandmother survives shooting at Covington ATM

Name: Grandmother survives shooting at Covington ATM
Uploaded: 2024-04-10T08:00:50-07:00
Description: King County Prosecutors have charged two 20-year-old men with robbing and shooting a 65-year-old woman at an ATM in Covington while her 10-year-old granddaughter watched from her car.

Grandmother survives shooting at Covington ATM

King County Prosecutors have charged two 20-year-old men with robbing and shooting a 65-year-old woman at an ATM in Covington while her 10-year-old granddaughter watched from her car.

COVINGTON, Wash. - King County Prosecutors have charged two 20-year-old men with robbing and shooting a 65-year-old woman at an ATM in Covington while her 10-year-old granddaughter watched from her car.

The victim is still recovering from her injuries after undergoing surgery to repair her shattered left femur. There were two open wounds to her thigh and two open wounds in her abdomen.

Major Crimes Detectives with the King County Sheriff's Office arrested Kolby Delamar from Tacoma and Tryse Phommavongxay from Des Moines.

According to court documents, they approached the victim on April 5th while she was at BECU to deposit a check into her account. She told officers they were yelling at her to give them a $1,000. She told them, "No, I don't have a $1,000." She said she was yelling 'Help' because she was petrified they were going to steal her car with her 10-year-old granddaughter inside.

That's when one suspect later identified as Delamar fired at her several times. Both men then ran south, got into a Nissan Sentra and drove away. Surveillance video showed a noticeable dent in the trunk of their car.

The same vehicle was caught on video surveillance 2.8 miles away in Kent with a license plate number. Detectives tracked that number back to Phommavongxay. They located the Sentra with the same dent in the trunk parked at his brother's apartment building in Seattle.

On April 25th, Phommavongxay was arrested after he came out of the apartment with his girlfriend and got into the front passenger seat.

Court documents say that when questioned by detectives, Phommavongxay identified Delamar as the shooter. He told them he had picked Delamar up at the Forest Park Apartments in Kent that night because they were going to "smoke". The two had been friends since they were in elementary school. He claimed it was Delamar's idea to go to the BECU, that the shooting was an accident, and that "he (Delamar) was stupid." He also added, "please, I didn't know."

Detectives then located and arrested Delamar on May 2nd outside his apartment in Tacoma. At first, court documents say he claimed that it was Phommavongxay's idea to commit the robbery and that he didn't fire the gun, saying "That's us, but he, he just, he needed, he was struggling. He needed money."

He eventually told the truth and admitted to being the one who shot the victim, firing the gun two times. He told them the coat he was wearing was in his girlfriend's trunk.

Detectives contacted her, recovered the coat and searched his residence where they located a .9mm Glock 19 and a drum magazine attached to the Glock.

Additionally, clothing worn by both suspects during the robbery was recovered during search warrants at each of their homes. It matched the clothing seen on bank surveillance video of the robbery.

Both have been charged with first-degree assault and first-degree attempted robbery. Neither man has a criminal record.

Kolby Delamar is being held on $250,000 bail. Tryse Phommavongxay is free on Electronic Home Monitoring after posting $50,000 bail.

Meanwhile, the grandmother is still recovering from multiple gunshot wounds.

Her granddaughter was in the car and unharmed but watched her grandmother get attacked before a Good Samaritan jumped in to help her.

"We can't get our heads around it, we can't stop thinking about it," said Anna Peterson. "I think it's consuming all of us because it happened to one of us."

Peterson sits on the Sea Hawkers Booster Club board with the victim. She put together this GoFundMe to help the victim and her granddaughter:

"Sea Hawkers from around the world started donating, and we've even got chapters in Ireland, for example, who are doing a fundraiser to donate," said Peterson.

Elise Robinson, President of the Sea Hawkers Booster Club, describes the victim as a mentor and last visited her in the hospital this past weekend.

"She looked like she was in a lot of pain," said Robinson.

Robinson says while the victim is getting ready for physical therapy for her injuries, she is currently out of work, so money donated to the online fundraiser will help cover rent, utilities, food and care for her granddaughter.

"She is a real gem to this community," said Robinson. "She's been volunteering through the Boy Scouts, through us, football camps, you name it, if we need something, she is there."

As of Tuesday night, a Harborview Medical Center spokesperson says the victim is in satisfactory condition and the King County Sheriff's Office says the suspects who shot her have not been caught.