By Sara Jean Green
The Seattle Times
AUBURN, Wash. — A 31-year-old Auburn man accused of wounding a state Department of Corrections officer in a shootout June 28 has been the subject of a federal firearms investigation since the spring.
Randy Lee Hall was federally charged last Thursday with unlawful possession of a firearm, according to the criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday. He is barred from legally possessing guns because he has four felony convictions since 2005, the complaint says.
Hall was hospitalized after being shot when he exchanged gunfire with members of a federal task force outside his Auburn condo complex June 28.
Hall appeared briefly Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Brian Tsuchida, who ordered Hall held in federal custody pending a detention hearing Thursday. Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg said the government would seek to have him held pending trial.
The judge set a preliminary hearing on the weapon charge for July 19, although it is likely a grand jury will indict Hall before then. Hall, whose left shoulder and arm were heavily bandaged and in a sling from injuries that hospitalized him for days after the shootout, faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Several members of his family were in the courtroom, including a young girl in braids who, with a little prompting from a woman, said loudly, “Love you, Daddy!” as Hall was led away by two deputy U.S. Marshals.
The shootout happened just before 3 p.m. June 28 at the Bye the Green condominium complex in the 3400 block of I Street Northeast.
Task-force members — including agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Seattle police and the Department of Corrections (DOC) — located a vehicle that had recently been rented by Hall, the complaint says.
According to the federal complaint:
Surveillance officers saw Hall leave his unit and head to the parking lot, where his rental car was parked. At that point, task-force members, each wearing a ballistic vest marked with “Police,” moved in to arrest him.
After they identified themselves as law enforcement, “Hall brandished a pistol … (and) discharged multiple rounds from the gun he possessed,” firing in the direction of two ATF agents and a DOC officer, says the complaint.
During the exchange of gunfire, Hall and a DOC officer were wounded. They were taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
Though the federal complaint identifies the injured officer and the two ATF agents only by their initials, the wounded DOC officer was identified last week as Kristoffer Rongen, who was shot in the leg.
Hall, who collapsed after he was shot multiple times, was armed with a semi-automatic pistol, according to the complaint.
Auburn police Cmdr. Steve Stocker said his agency is responsible for investigating law enforcement’s role in the shooting, but ATF is handling the investigation into Hall’s role.
At the time of his arrest, Hall was wanted on a misdemeanor warrant on a third-degree malicious mischief charge out of Bellevue, says the complaint.
He was also the subject of an ongoing ATF investigation after he had been linked “to multiple firearms and shots-fired incidents,” it says.
During an investigation following an April 23 shooting incident, Seattle police recovered two firearms from a vehicle registered to Hall — and ballistic tests showed that one of the guns had been used in at least nine separate incidents since last year, the complaint says.
Details on the April 23 shooting incident weren’t immediately available.
Copyright 2016 The Seattle Times