John Lee to face upper court after preliminary hearing
Michael Chin didn’t know he was shot until he saw the blood on his phone as he dialed 911.
“I felt like there was a level of feeling that something touched me, but I didn’t realize that I had actually been hit by the bullets,” Chin said.
Chin was the first of 17 witnesses to testify Thursday at a preliminary hearing for John Lee, the accused shooter in a Jan. 10 shooting spree that left three dead and one injured.
Lee faces three counts of first-degree murder and one count of aggravated battery in Latah County. He is eligible for the death penalty.
Latah County Magistrate John Judge said there was a substantial amount of evidence to support the three counts of first-degree murder as well as the aggravated battery charge. Judge moved the case up to Latah County District Court. Lee’s arraignment will be at 3 p.m. Aug. 4 at the Latah County District Court.
“I am deeply sorry for everyone effected by these events, including Mr. Lee’s family,” Judge said.
Latah County Prosecutor William Thompson said there was probable cause to send the case to a higher court with witness testimonies, an 80 percent positive eyewitness testimony and ballistic evidence from each crime scene that matches the 9mm handgun found in Lee’s car.
John Lee, eligible for the death penalty, faces three counts of first-degree murder and one count of aggravated battery in Latah County.
“It shows a clear intent to kill,” Thompson said.
Chin, who was injured during the incident, was visiting David Trail at Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance and Financial Services when he said someone entered the office about 30 minutes after he had arrived.
“He had no expression at all,” Chin said. “He was very distant and kind of cold, but it was a very intentional stare at Dave Trail.”
Chin said Trail seemed to recognize the individual and had a puzzled look on his face that seemed to say, “What are you doing here?”
Chin said the man then pulled out a handgun and shot Trail four to six times before leaving Trail’s office.
“I saw Dave Trail pretty much fall from his chair onto the floor, facedown,” Chin said.
Trail was still alive and struggling to crawl underneath the desk, Chin said. A few seconds later, Chin said the man returned and shot him twice and shot Trail again about four times before leaving. Chin said he is 80 percent sure the man in question was Lee.
Chin said he called 911 when he was more confident the shooter had vacated the premises.
“When I dialed 911, that was when I realized that I had been hit,” Chin said.
Paramedics and EMTs, including Andrew Becker, arrived at the scene. They assigned differing degrees of urgency to the two victims.
Becker said Chin was categorized as red, meaning he was in critical condition and had to be taken to the hospital immediately, and Trail was listed under black, meaning he was “possibly unsalvageable.”
“I believe that if he wanted to kill me at that time, he would have done so,” Chin said. “Because of the way he shot and killed David Trail.”
Detective Dustin Blaker of the Moscow Police Department explained evidence pertaining to the Northwestern Mutual. He said he had found several bullet casings as well as live rounds — ammunition that is intact and could still be fired, Blaker said. Of the live rounds, Blaker said there were two different types: dimpled and not dimpled.
The dimpled rounds suggest that the firearm in question was triggered, but that the gun did not actually go off as intended, Blaker said. In order to clear the problem, he said the shooter would have to “rack back” the slide, a mechanism that helps load the gun, and reload a new round. These live rounds lead Blaker to theorize the shooter possibly had firearm issues while on the scene.
Surveillance video showed Lee entering Northwestern Mutual around 2:30 p.m. Reserve Officer Tom Picarella with Moscow Police said prior to entering the building, a man he identified as Lee could be seen on the video “racking back” a handgun.
After he leaves and drives away, a woman enters the building and can be seen running out frantically, Picarella said.
The suspect was seen in the video driving in the direction of Arby’s, where manager Belinda Niebuhr was shot and killed. Sydney Jones and Katelyn Capps were working at Arby’s at the time the suspect, who they both identified as Lee, showed up. Jones said he looked like he was just a customer upset about his food, while Capps got the impression that something had happened outside.
According to Capps, Lee asked her to see the manager and she went to the back to tell Niebuhr that a customer was there to see her. A conversation took place, and Capps said she saw him fiddling with his pocket.
“He said, ‘Do you remember me?’ and he pulled (the gun) out and it jammed twice. It went ‘click, click,'” Capps said, her voice breaking.
After the gun jammed, both Capps and Jones said they ran — one out the back and one out of the side door.
Jones said she hid behind a shed between the gas station and Arby’s. She watched Lee walk out of the store and noted that he did not hurry, just walked.
“He just looked blank,” Jones said. “He just had a straight face.”
While Jones was hiding, Capps said she ran towards the gas station near Arby’s screaming, “Somebody help us, he has a gun and is going to kill us.” She said she heard five gunshots behind her.
Tsegai “Bobby” Gebrehiwet, a taxi driver, was at the gas station pumping gas when he saw a man he identified as Lee exit the building holding a handgun. He said he saw Lee pause by the front door of Arby’s before walking to a small black car and driving out of the Arby’s parking lot.
Gebrehiwet decided to follow Lee. He said he was on the phone with police dispatch explaining the situation as he followed Lee on Highway 8.
While tailing Lee, Gebrehiwet said they made eye contact through Lee’s rearview mirror. He described Lee’s expression as “heartless.”
“That is the only time I have ever been afraid for my life,” Gebrehiwet said.
Gebrehiwet followed Lee to Veatch Street on the other side of town — the same street Lee’s adoptive mother Terri Grzebielski lived. He informed dispatch of where Lee was and was told that he could leave. Gebrehiwet said he circled the block twice before seeing Lee’s car door open and on a third circle he saw Lee leaving Veatch and heading towards Highway 8.
“You know if somebody does something wrong, and they know they did something wrong, they have this trying to get away, trying to hide so nobody sees you,” Gebrehiwet said. “But he had this look like he wanted people to look at him.”
Sgt. Tyson Berrett with Moscow Police investigated the Grzebielski crime scene on Veatch Street. Berrett said he found Grzebielski lying on the floor with live rounds and bullet casings found around the scene.
Officer Michael Crow with the Pullman Police Department said he had heard a report that a suspect, described as an Asian male, was headed toward Pullman in a black Honda Fit. Crow said he saw a car fitting the description at around 2:50 p.m. and began to follow the car.
The driver, later identified as Lee by Crow, ran a red light and used a right hand turning lane to pass a line of cars at the stop light. Crow said he and four or five other officers then began to pursue the suspect as he exited Pullman city limits.
A high-speed chase occurred, and Crow said at some points he was going at speeds up to 120 mph between Pullman and Colfax. He said the driver would drive into the oncoming lane, forcing cars off the road. Lee eventually drove off the road after Colfax, and Crow said Lee was handcuffed and secured.
The vehicle was sent back to Moscow to be searched. Lt. Dave Lehmitz found multiple firearms and several live rounds of ammunition in the vehicle and inside a backpack found within the vehicle.
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) reports along with autopsies and fingerprint analyses were submitted alongside multiple photos as evidence by the prosecution team.
Claire Whitley and Erin Bamer can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @Cewhitley24 and @ErinBamer