Suspect Arrested in Connection with East Wenatchee Mall Shooting

The accused culprit in a Sept. 4 shooting on Wenatchee Valley Mall grounds is now in custody, according to East Wenatchee Police Chief Rick Johnson.

The shooting was proximal to Sportsman's Warehouse, one of the anchor stores at the mall. A parking lot dust-up nearly escalated to the point of no return, with 36-year-old Victor John Stevenson reportedly firing at the driver of a Ford Expedition. No one was hurt.

On Thursday, Stevenson was hauled in on miscellaneous charges, some unrelated to the shooting. (He also had drugs on his person according to jailhouse records.) Johnson says the arrest might not have been possible absent the cooperation and transparency of corrections officials.

Get our free mobile app

"We had already identified [Stevenson] as a suspect in this incident, but he's actually, I believe, on probation with the Department of Corrections," Johnson says. "They were aware that we were looking for him. So when they came in contact with him, they contacted us to let us know they were with him. The investigation expanded from there."

Once detained, Stevenson was forthcoming about his role in the shooting, Johnson says. Stevenson admitted to firing at the victim. He wanted, he said, to avenge relatives who'd been threatened by the victim. This claim may or may not be veracious, Johnson says: "To our knowledge, there's not a history there. I don't think we were aware of the conflict between them until this investigation."

Regardless, Stevenson does appear to have a long and tortured history with the mall itself. This Court of Appeals filing recounts a 2006 mall skirmish for which Stevenson was charged with third-degree assault and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.