By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Four people were arrested overnight and two teenage suspects are at large in connection with a nighttime baseball bat attack on a 19-year-old rural Chehalis resident which he believes was retaliation from when a friend of his recently stabbed a person outside Wal-Mart, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.
The sheriff’s office only this morning revealed the assault occurred, about 1 a.m. on Friday at the 200 block of Brockway Road.
Chief Deputy Dusty Breen said deputies learned the 19-year-old male had been walking his dog when a car pulled up at the entrance to his driveway and an individual wearing a red bandana exited and asked him what he was doing.
The 19-year-old victim said a male and a female then got out of the vehicle and confronted him. At one point, he said, they were armed with bats and hit him in the head two or three times, according to Breen. The victim suffered lacerations and bumps, Breen said.
The car, which he thought was a white 1990s Honda Accord-type vehicle, then left driving toward state Route 6, according to the sheriff’s office.
Breen said an investigation and interviews beginning about 9:30 p.m. yesterday led to the arrests and booking of four suspects for second-degree assault.
The first is a 16-year-old Chehalis girl who was not named, and was booked into the Lewis County Juvenile Detention Center.
Booked into the Lewis County Jail were Victor E. Gonzalez, 18, of Centralia; Jesus A. Gomez, 19, of Centralia; and Taylor S. Rodgers, 20, of Chehalis.
The other two suspects who have not yet been located are Stormie M. McKenzie, 19, from Winlock, and an un-named 17-year-old boy from North Bend, according to Breen.
Two weeks ago, officers were dispatched for a fight between two males in Wal-Mart’s parking lot at the 1600 block of Northwest Louisiana Avenue in Chehalis, but when they arrived both were gone. Police soon learned a 17-year-old boy was seeking medical treatment at Providence Centralia Hospital for a stab wound in his chest. Friends of the 17-year-old in the hospital waiting room said he’d gotten into a fight with another male who stabbed him.
The following day Jose F. Chagolla Flores, 18, of Onalaska, and his vehicle were found at a friend’s home on Brockway Road and he was arrested for first-degree assault.
Chagolla Flores allegedly told police he was meeting someone at Wal-Mart to sell them some marijuana when the 17-year-old showed up and knocked him down, so he stabbed him.
The adult suspects for the baseball bat attack are tentatively scheduled to go before a judge this afternoon in Lewis County Superior Court.
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For background, read “Chehalis Wal-Mart stabbing suspect says teen hit him first” from Tuesday October 10, 2017, here [1]