On the night of March 28, 2020, a dispute over a parking space in a Lynnwood, Washington neighborhood escalated into a fatal encounter for 36-year-old DeMarcus Bell, a Black male from Tacoma. The incident began when a woman arrived home to find a visitor's car in her driveway in the 3300 block of 203rd Street SW. She informed her fiancé, and a group of people, including Bell, went to the neighbor's house to address the issue.
An argument erupted and quickly turned into a physical fight
on the front porch of the neighboring home. During the altercation, one man's leg was broken, and another had his false teeth knocked out. The woman's fiancé, who did not have a weapon, yelled for her to get his gun in an attempt to de-escalate the fight. Shortly after, a man named Alex Valdovinos, who lived at the residence, emerged from the house with a rifle and fired two shots into the air, causing the fight to break up.
As Bell and his friends were retreating, Valdovinos fired three or four more shots. One of these bullets struck Bell in the head, and he fell to the ground at the end of the driveway. Investigators later found six. 22-caliber bullet casings approximately 150 feet from where Bell had fallen. The Snohomish County Medical Examiner's Office later confirmed that the cause of Bell's death was a gunshot wound and ruled it a homicide.
Initially, Alex Valdovinos, then 27, denied being the shooter to investigators, but a witness contradicted his account. He was arrested and charged with second-degree murder. Eventually, Valdovinos pleaded guilty to the charge. In September 2022, a Snohomish County Superior Court judge sentenced him to over 15 years in prison for the killing of DeMarcus Bell.
