By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The Centralia woman shot yesterday in what police are calling a gang-related dispute at an apartment complex is listed in serious condition this morning and the man accused of firing the gun is expected to go before a judge this afternoon.
[1]Edison Terrace Apartments
Ulises Carrillo-Cruz, 20, confessed to shooting the woman, but police were told he wasn’t targeting her, according to the Centralia Police Department.
“There’s a claim he fired to scare them off, and rounds were fired into the ground,” police Sgt. Kurt Reichert said this morning.
Carrillo-Cruz, also of Centralia, was arrested yesterday at the apartments for first-degree assault and felon in possession of a firearm, according to police.
According to police, a group of at least four people – including 28-year-old Genevieve Purser who was shot – showed up at the complex on the 400 block of North Ash Street in Centralia.
“The short version is one group went to the other group’s apartment to raise hell,” Reichert said.
Officers were called just after 1:15 p.m. by the manager who heard two gun shots and then saw two males standing nearby at the corner of Ash Street and Park Way screaming and cussing toward one of the apartments.
Carrillo-Cruz and his brother Rolondo Carrillo-Cruz, 25, reside at the apartment with a young woman, according to the apartment managers.
Purser was taken to the Providence Centralia Hospital by friends, according to police. She had a gunshot wound to her shoulder, according to police which they described as non-life threatening.
Purser was then transferred to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
Centralia police reported they found a firearm yesterday hidden in some bushes near the scene. Police have not said how many shots were fired, only that it occurred in a “common area”.
Three other males were also arrested yesterday at the complex, called the Edison Terrace Apartments.
Rolondo Carrillo-Cruz was arrested and booked also for first-degree assault and felon in possession of a firearm, according to police. It’s not clear what his role was.
Francisco J. Robles, 18, and Javier E. Martinez, 18, were arrested and booked for rendering criminal assistance; they are suspected of hiding evidence, according to Reichert.
Reichert said it was the same general group of people who showed up at the apartments earlier this month and took baseball bats to the windows of that apartment unit and a Kia car.
All four men are scheduled to go before a judge in Lewis County Superior Court at 4 p.m. today.