By Steve Powell
spowell@marysvilleglobe.com
MARYSVILLE – Bail was set Monday at $1 million for a Lynnwood man who apparently randomly shot and killed a Marysville man Sunday.
The victim, 59, was shot eight times, reportedly after asking the stranger to leave his neighborhood. He died of gunshot wounds to the head, neck and torso.
Wayne H. Alpert, also 59, was booked into the Snohomish County Jail in Everett on suspicion of second-degree murder and assault. The victim had lived on 73rd Place NE. The alleged shooter was sitting on the curb with a handgun nearby when police arrived, Marysville Police Cmdr. Mark Thomas said. Earlier in the evening, police responded to the 500 block of State Avenue on a report of a man brandishing a firearm. Police learned that two individuals, who had just gotten off a Community Transit bus, exchanged words when one of them pulled a handgun.
A search, including a K-9 track squad, was unsuccessful in locating the suspect.
Less than 10 minutes after that search, police began receiving calls of a shooting about 12 blocks away.
Police have confirmed that the suspect in the original brandishing of the firearm is the same suspect in the shooting, but the random victims were different.
Neighbor Ashley Pempeit was with another neighbor outside with their kids when they heard what they thought were firecrackers. A few minutes later she heard screaming, then a woman drove by, stopped, and told them to get the kids inside.
“The neighbors were screaming at us to go into lockdown,” Pempeit said Monday. “The kids went into hiding in the hallway and were a little scared.”
She said in the two years she has been there it’s been a safe neighborhood. She only recalls police being there once, for a neighborhood argument.
“That’s what an officer said yesterday, ‘It’s a quiet little neighborhood,’” Pempeit said.
She provided police with a witness statement, as the shooter was caught by police close to her home. She said there was no altercation beforehand.
“We’re all kind of dumbfounded,” she said. Pempeit said the suspect did not try to escape. But she said he did seem out of it. “He didn’t quite seem in his right mind from what I could tell.”
Another neighbor, Laura Murril, who lives three blocks down the road, said she heard about the shooting on a police scanner. Once she knew she wasn’t in any danger, she walked there and took some photographs. She posted them online at the Snohomish County Crime Page.
She said the shooting is the very reason she started the crime page three years ago. “It’s one big Neighborhood Crime Watch,” she said of the site with 43,000 followers.
She said the social media site is great for warning others about what’s going on locally. The site has helped find missing people and animals, and recover stolen items, including cars. Along with the county site, there is also one for Marysville. Murril even has one for the smaller Pinewood area. She encouraged others not only to have a Neighborhood Crime Watch through Marysville police, but to also have one on social media.
“You can communicate to neighbors faster” that way, she said, adding nextdoor.com is another option. Murril said it seems like crime has increased, and the page has made people more aware of what’s going on.
“It can scare people a little bit – they’re not sheltered anymore,” she said.
