The Wenatchee Police Department announced Wednesday that two men have been charged in connection with a murder that occurred last week in Wenatchee.
25-year-old Andrew F. Morrow and 23-year-old Benito E. Licea, both of Wenatchee, were charged Tuesday with second-degree murder for the drive-by shooting death of 21-year-old David Lomeli-Vasquez.
On April 18, officers were called to the 800 block of Methow Street in Wenatchee just before 3 p.m. for a report of shots fired.
The first officer to arrive found a man, later identified as Lomeli-Vasquez, inside of a Honda Accord in the middle of the street with a gunshot wound to his head.
Medics were called to the scene immediately and Lomeli-Vasquez was transported to Central Washington Hospital, where he later died.
Witnesses at the scene told police that the shots came from a white Mercury Grand Marquis that left going south on Methow Street. The vehicle description matched that from a disturbance that had been reported a few minutes earlier on Okanogan Avenue.
While officers were securing the scene on Methow Street, an officer with the East Wenatchee Police Department spotted the Mercury on the George Sellar Bridge. That officer followed the car as he communicated with other officers and tried to make a traffic stop.
The vehicle sped off on North Baker Avenue until crashing into a fence at Westview Drive North and North Baker Road in Douglas County.
Morrow and Licea exited the car and ran away on foot, but were both captured with the help of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, Chelan County Sheriff’s Office, East Wenatchee Police Department, Wenatchee Police Department, the Washington State Patrol and the East Cascade SWAT Team.
At the time, both were booked on felony charges by Douglas County unrelated to the shooting in Wenatchee.
Through the course of the investigation, it was discovered that Morrow was the driver of the Mercury and fired multiple shots from a gun, resulting in the death of Lomeli-Vasquez.
It was also determined that Licea was the passenger in the Mercury.
Both were charged Tuesday with second-degree murder, while Morrow received an additional charge of first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.