In the late afternoon of April 11, 2017, a sense of routine quickly turned to terror for 19-year-old Arturo Marcial-Alvarez, a Hispanic male from Kent, Washington. At approximately 4:30 p.m., as the rush hour traffic filled the streets of Federal Way, Marcial-Alvarez stepped off a King County Metro bus at the intersection of Pacific Highway South and Dash Point Road. He was alone, and unknowingly, had been followed for about eight miles by a green minivan.
As he began to walk away from the bus stop, the van pulled up, and gunfire erupted from the front passenger side window.
The sudden burst of violence sent pedestrians scrambling for cover. Marcial-Alvarez attempted to flee, but he was struck by five bullets and collapsed against a nearby fence. Despite his injuries, he managed to get back on his feet and stumble around a corner before collapsing again. Emergency services arrived to find him unconscious on the sidewalk, and despite their efforts to revive him, he was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators later found a gun in his pocket. The brazenness of the attack, carried out in broad daylight on a busy thoroughfare, underscored the targeted nature of the shooting.
The investigation into the death of Arturo Marcial-Alvarez quickly pointed to a conflict between rival street gangs. Two days after the shooting, a key piece of evidence emerged when Seattle police responded to another shooting incident. They found a green minivan with the words "Mama Pepa" written on the back window, matching the description of the vehicle used in Marcial-Alvarez's killing. The driver, 20-year-old Alondra J. Garcia-Garcia, was arrested. She was later charged with rendering criminal assistance for allegedly driving the getaway vehicle.
Further investigation led to the arrests of two more individuals believed to be the shooters. Miguel Antonio Bejar, Jr., a 21-year-old from Kent, and a 15-year-old male from Burien, were taken into custody. Both were charged with second-degree murder. According to charging documents, Bejar admitted to being a member of a street gang that was in an ongoing dispute with the gang to which Marcial-Alvarez allegedly belonged. He reportedly told police, "Before the end of 2017, there's going to be a lot of dead gangsters." The 15-year-old suspect was arrested at Highline High School and denied being a member of a gang, though he admitted to a recent altercation with members of Marcial-Alvarez's affiliated gang. The case highlighted a surge in gang-related violence in the area, with Marcial-Alvarez's death being one of several connected shootings.
