Two 31-year-old men who allegedly unloaded their pistols into a Richland house during a Friday morning gunfight were stymied in their getaway by thick snow.
Jeffery S. Rehmke and Joshua M. Chavez bailed out of their silver Chevrolet TrailBlazer when they couldn’t drive forward on Sanford Avenue at 5:30 a.m. Feb. 15, according to Richland police.
Video surveillance from neighbors’ homes, shoe prints and blood droplets in the snow and discarded items, including a backpack with about $2,500 in cash and 1.6 pounds of methamphetamine, helped police identify the two, court documents said.
Rehmke was found that morning a few blocks away sitting on a patio chair in the backyard of a Willard Avenue home. He was out of breath, soaking wet and had to be treated at the hospital for asthma-related issues, documents said.
Rehmke was arrested on a felony warrant for an unrelated case and bailed out Friday evening, jail records show. He has not yet been charged in the shooting.
Chavez was picked up Tuesday in Oregon on a $200,000 nationwide warrant for charges of first-degree assault, drive-by shooting and first-degree illegal gun possession.
Suspect arrested at Umatilla hotel
Richland police said their detectives were helped by the U.S. Marshals Service in finding and arresting Chavez, who reportedly was found at a Umatilla County hotel.
Chavez may also have a felony charge in Oregon for failing to appear with bail set at $50,000, according to the Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office.
He has to go through the extradition process before brought to Benton County Superior Court on the shooting case.
Richland police said in a Facebook post on Wednesday that “more arrests and charges are expected in this case.”
It is believed that several people fled 1018 Sanford Ave. during the shooting. Several 911 callers reported people jumping fences and running through backyards, and one Richland officer even heard the gunshots.
Detective Sgt. Drew Florence wrote in a probable-cause affidavit that the first shot likely was fired from inside the home when Chavez was at the front door.
Chavez then retreated to the SUV, where he and Rehmke opened fire on the house before driving off, Florence wrote.
At least one person inside shot back, hitting the SUV, along with a nearby Toyota Scion and a home across the street.
Chavez, whose nickname is “Turtle,” somehow injured his hand, but police don’t know if he was shot. No one else was hurt.
Gunfight on Sanford Avenue
Security video from two nearby homes show the SUV pulling up in front of the Sanford Avenue house, Chavez getting out of the front passenger seat, approaching the Scion, then walking around the house until he ended up at the front door, said court documents.
He then ran from the front door, and Florence said that’s when investigators believe a shot was fired from inside toward Chavez.
Chavez had been “pounding on different parts of the residence screaming and stating that someone inside had wronged him in some way,” documents said.
He also was seen in the videos looking into the Scion, which pulled up at the house about 45 minutes earlier.
Florence said after Chavez got back into the SUV, it drove forward until it was in front of the house. Video shows gunfire from inside the SUV, then it getting stuck in the snow as they tried to leave.
Rehmke got out, ran behind the SUV and then went through a yard, where he was seen falling at one point, Florence wrote.
Several guns found in neighborhood
After Rehmke’s capture, he denied being involved or connected with the TrailBlazer, which had Oregon license plates.
Rehmke allegedly told investigators that he had gone to a party at the Sanford Avenue house with a man he only identified as Jose, or “Joker.”
“His statement was determined to be false and changed at different times,” Florence wrote. The suspect had on Nike Jordan shoes with a sole that matched prints of the man who was seen in video running from the SUV.
Police searched the neighborhood the day and found a 9mm Bersa Thunder gun under a seat cushion on a bench next to where Rehmke was sitting when arrested, court documents said.
The pistol — which the homeowners said didn’t belong to them — had an empty magazine inserted and the hammer was cocked back, documents said.
Chavez had tried to push the SUV out of the thick snow, but abandoned his efforts and grabbed some belongings from inside before running, court documents said.
Police found a 9mm Khar CM9 gun, with blood smears, in the snow below the rear bumper. The pistol was in a slide lock position, indicating it had been fired until the magazine was empty.
Shooter dropped cash and drugs
Surveillance video shows Chavez go down Partridge Street, then south on Smith Avenue, where he left the camera view. “While he is running he appears as though one of his arms is not swinging as if he is holding something or is injured,” documents said.
Officers followed his trail of prints, blood and discarded items to the 1000 block of Smith, where they found a $20 bill with a blood smear in the middle of the street.
Chavez then allegedly went through a nearby backyard and hopped a fence. An iPhone charger cord with blood was caught on the fence.
Then, in the backyard of a Swift Boulevard home, police found a wallet with Chavez’s identification card, an open backpack and a beanie-style hat under some bushes. There was blood on some bills inside the pack, which also held a phone, toothbrush and “several moderate-sized baggies” of meth, court documents said.
Chavez was wet and cold, with an injured hand, when he stopped to ask a man on Snow Avenue for a ride to Pasco, and the man agreed.
2 bullets hit neighbor’s home
Investigators found five .380 spent shell casings inside the front door of the Sanford home, and eight bullet strikes in the front. Some bullets were found in walls inside.
The two bullets that went into a neighbor’s house — with one going through a wall and stopping in a kitchen cabinet — likely came from the people in the Sanford home shooting out, court documents said. The neighbors were home at the time.
Police found a .380 handgun in the yard of a Potter Avenue home, that likely was dropped by someone else, documents said.
The search of the Sanford house also turned up about 1 pound of meth, and Breanne N. Rutherford, 26, was arrested on suspicion of possessing meth with intent to deliver.
Fourteen spent 9mm casings were found inside the SUV, along with a bag of baggies similar to the kind used to package drugs, a digital scale and a small amount of meth, documents said.
Chavez’s criminal history includes assault of a Pasco officer in 2016 and robbery in 2013, both of which came with 2-year, 9-month prison sentences. He also has convictions for possession and delivery of meth, theft, theft of a firearm, possession of stolen property and vehicle theft.