Exclusive: Two 15-year-olds arrested with stolen guns after deadly E. Washington garage party

Deputy Michael Clossey was on a traffic stop with a driver in Benton City when he heard the gunfire Friday night.

Ten shots rocked the usually sleepy, rural town of 3,400 about 15 miles west of the Tri-Cities.

Clossey returned to his patrol car and took off driving in that direction, and another deputy headed that way too.

Soon, callers to 911 directed them to a Willard Avenue house about two miles away in the unincorporated area known as Kiona, south of Interstate 82.

The Benton County deputies were met immediately by chaos.

Cars whizzed passed them on the rural roads apparently fleeing from the shooting scene. Several, they would later learn, were carrying gunshot victims to three different hospitals.

Newly filed court documents reveal what the deputies saw when they arrived at 25301 Willard Avenue — a detached garage riddled with bullets and splashed with blood.

It’s unclear how many teens and young adults were at the party, but deputies and West Richland police officers found 20 people hiding inside the house.

Benton County investigators have said six people were shot at the party. While court documents don’t say what ages they were, a parent told the Herald they were teens and young adults.

One male victim later died and another person was hospitalized, while four others were treated for non-life-threatening wounds.

Sheriff’s officials have not said who was killed, if a shooting suspect is under arrest or what they believe happened.

But earlier this week, two 15-year-old boys from Kennewick appeared in Benton-Franklin Juvenile Court after deputies arrested them for having stolen guns inside their backpacks at the party.

While neither teen is apparently suspected of firing the guns at the party, the court documents provided details about what officers found in their search for the gunman at the Willard Avenue. home.

The teens are being held in the Juvenile Detention Center in Kennewick on 72-hour holds on suspicion of illegally possessing guns and having stolen firearms.

One teen allegedly had four guns and is being held in lieu of $250,000 bail,. The other allegedly had one firearm and has bail set at $200,000.

Gunshots in the night

Clossey was one of the first officers to arrive at the scene after the shooting.

He was at Dale Avenue and Ninth Street when he heard the gunshots south of him. As he and Deputy Guillen headed south, the calls started coming in to emergency dispatchers just after midnight on Saturday morning.

Angela Sanchez, the mother of a boy with friends at the party, previously told the Tri-City Herald she was on the phone with teens who were trying to get a wounded friend to a hospital.

“We spent the evening cleaning blood off of kiddos who came home from trying to have a fun night out. Children who rushed other children to the hospital while on FaceTime asking how to keep these babies alive till they got there,” she said on Facebook.

The victims ended up at Trios Southridge Hospital in Kennewick, Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland and Prosser Memorial Hospital, according to court documents.

Shot and reloaded

At first, residents of the home were “not being fully cooperative,” said Clossey’s affidavit. It’s unclear if they were adults or juveniles.

The detached garage had been set up for a party, and there were multiple bullet holes in the walls, as well as broken windows and a large amount of blood, he wrote.

Eventually, people returned to the home and spoke with investigators.

“I spoke to a group of individuals that had confirmed they were inside the garage for a party,” wrote Clossey. “They explained to me an unknown individual entered the garage and began shooting multiple rounds into the garage that was filled with multiple individuals. One male explained a number of shots were fired, then the gun was reloaded, and another round of shots were fired.”

“They confirmed multiple individuals inside the garage area had been shot and everyone became panicked” and tried to flee the area, said the affidavit.

While Benton County sheriff’s investigators have said there was some sort of argument or disturbance prior to the shooting, court documents give no information from witnesses who saw an argument.

Investigators found 10 spent casings near the garage and another five at the northwest corner of the property at the corner of Willard Avenue and Kiona Road.

Security camera video from a neighbor’s home appears to confirm that. Clossey said he heard on the video 10 shots in the initial volley and then saw a muzzle flash and five more shots near the stop sign.

No information has been released yet about a suspect or a suspect car.