A member of the Holly Hoover Crips targeted in a shooting in September is is facing weapons charges after police overheard him planning retaliation against a rival gang from his hospital bed, according to SPD records.
Prosecutors have charged Richard Lak, 23, with unlawful weapons possession after police connected him with a handgun found not far from where Lak was wounded in an apparent drive-by shooting at 52nd and Roxbury Ave S on September 20th.
Around 1:00am on September 20th, police records say Lak showed up at Harborview about a half-hour with a gunshot wound to his leg.
Lak provided gang detectives with several different versions of events when interviewed at the hospital, but it’s clear that around 12:30am, Lak was with a friend, nicknamed “Hoodlum Locc”, near Rainier Ave S—either near 52nd or S Frontenac street—when a car drove by and someone in the vehicle shouted “D-Dub”—a reference to the Down Wit the Crew gang—and fired two to four shots.
Lak initially told police the shooting was not related to his gang affiliation, but a corrections officer guarding another patient at Harborview overheard Lak talking to someone on the phone, telling them to go get a gun stashed in some bushes near where he was shot, police records say.
The guard overheard Lak tell someone that “D-Dub niggaz” had shot him, and discuss retaliation for the shooting.
When gang detectives confronted Lak about the conversation, he told police he is “beefing” with D-Dub gang members, who believe he one of their own.
Police examined text messages on Lak’s cellphone, which “appeared to be about purchasing marijuana and a gun,” police records say.
Lak tried to convince detectives they had misinterpreted the text messages, but could explain why he would even be discussing owning or purchasing a gun when he is a convicted felon.
Because Lak is a convicted felon—with prior convictions on domestic violence, auto theft, weapons and gun charges—he is not legally able to own a firearm.
Lak eventually gave detectives information about where they could find a gun stashed following the shooting, and detectives later recovered a Taurus handgun in the 9300 52nd Ave S at the end of a blood trail. Police also found Lak’s blood soaked sock near the gun.
Lak told police he did not own the gun, but admitted his blood was on it.
Lak is currently being held in the King County Jail on $75,000 bail.
