Man arrested after pointing gun at artists, vandalizing city-commissioned Renton mural

RENTON, Wash. — Renton police said they arrested a man who pointed a gun at a team of artists working on a city-commissioned mural that he later reportedly defaced with the words “Trump,” “LAM” and “BOO.”

Last month, investigators said the group of artists were working on the now-completed mural near 116th Avenue and SE Petrovitsky Road when the man stopped his car in the street, raised a gun, racked the slide and pointed it at the artists, yelling “all lives matter.”

“Deeply jarring in a way that I hadn’t experienced,” said Mari Shibuya, the artist the city commissioned to create the mural. “I am grateful for my natural instincts that keyed in at the time, which was this project required a lift, so we did have large equipment to hide behind.”

People in the group recognized the man as the same person who had yelled, “all lives matter,” at them twice in the days before pointing the gun, police said. The mural was vandalized two weeks later, causing an estimated $2,500 in damage, but security video in the area wasn’t good enough to make out any helpful details.

Investigators said that harassment that was not limited to the man in the gun incident led Renton police to provide security for the group of artists that Shibuya said included two Black women.

“Once they were on-site, this man started harassing us,” said Shibuya. “One of my associates was wearing a Black Lives Matter shirt and he drove by yelling ‘all lives matter,’ and ‘Trump.’”

The city of Renton said there was a community engagement process before work began on the $30,000, 200-foot concrete wall mural that was commissioned to help strengthen community ties and identity.

“I grew up in Fairwood, that’s not too far from where this is, and had always felt a lack of a sense of place,” said Shibuya. “Art can often create a sense of place.”

Renton police said the night before the mural was defaced, on Oct. 13, the King County Sheriff’s Office investigated vandalism at a Fairwood pet shop that was tagged with the same “LAM” letters that had been written on Shibuya’s project in spray paint. Investigators said they got a suspect’s name after a witness at the pet store provided a license plate number of a car that matched the description of the mural suspect’s Honda.

Investigators said they linked the car to a 2018 case at Snoqualmie Casino, where an unidentified man drove off in the same Honda after writing “Trump” and “die u communist” on the stickers of another car that was in the parking lot. Police said the suspect was positively identified and arrested Wednesday in connection to the mural vandalism and gun incident.

“I don’t want this to mess with his life in any way,” said Shibuya who, in the end, painted the man who pulled the gun on her into the mural.

“It seemed like he felt threatened by us in a different way. Maybe that feels like he’s not included in this version of community,” said Shibuya. “No, you are. There’s space for you.”

King County prosecutors said a judge found probable cause for second-degree assault and second-degree malicious mischief during the suspect’s first court appearance Thursday. As of Thursday night he had not been formally charged and remained in jail.

Cox Media Group