GEORGE, Wash. — Court documents state the suspect in the Gorge campground shooting, which left two people dead and four other people injured, including the suspect, told deputies he was under the influence of mushrooms and was hallucinating when he started the shooting.
26-year-old James M. Kelly appeared in a Grant County Superior Court on Wednesday, and a judge found probable cause to detain him without bail. Kelly is facing two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of first-degree assault, and one count of first-degree assault domestic violence.
New court documents revealed more information about what led to the shooting at the Gorge campground, next to the amphitheatre where the Beyond Wonderland Music Festival was underway on Saturday.
According to court documents, the suspect, 26-year-old James M. Kelly, traveled to the music festival with his girlfriend, 21-year-old Lily A. Luksich.
They set up a tent camp in the Gorge campground and sometime in the evening Kelly ingested a dose of mushrooms ( aka "shrooms"), and he and Luksich walked over to the concert venue.
While they were at the concert venue, he began to feel the effects of the dose of mushrooms and started experiencing hallucinations.
Luksich told deputies, as Kelly's hallucination "trip" was going on, he began to believe that 'the world was ending' and that he needed to return to his camp immediately with Luksich, according to documents.
Kelly and Luksich hurried back to their campsite and during that time, Luksich said Kelly made multiple statements to the effect of "this is the end." When they arrived back at the camp, Kelly went back to his pickup truck and took his handgun from a locked box stored in the center console.
Kelly loaded a magazine into the handgun, chambered a cartridge, and stepped out from behind the driver's door, documents stated.
The two victims, 29-year-old Brandy Escamilla and 26-year-old Josilyn Ruiz, were walking in the area, through the Gorge campground, when Kelly started firing multiple shots from his handgun at them and both were struck by bullets and died at the scene.
Another victim, 31-year-old Andrew J. Cuadra, who also attended the music festival, and was in the Gorge campground in the same area when the shooting took place, said he heard the shots fired and moved toward them.
Cuadra approached Kelly's front left, and he was shot in the upper torso and sustained serious injuries.
Kelly left the location of his pickup and began to move through the campground to the east. Luksich followed him, and at approximately 8:24 p.m. she used her cell phone to call 911 and reached emergency dispatch. She told dispatch Kelly, had a gun, then no more information was provided because Kelly took her phone and discarded it.
Then Kelly and Luksich moved northeast toward the outer fence line of the campground. A utility vehicle with multiple Crowd Management Services (CMS) employees onboard, was responding to the report of shots fired and was driving east along the fence line.
CMS employee, 53-year-old Lori L. Williams, was driving the utility vehicle when Kelly fired at least two shots at the vehicle. One bullet went through the windshield and struck Williams' eyeglasses. The impact shattered her glasses and caused bruising and cuts to Williams' face.
Kelly and Luksich continued to move north into the adjacent farm field along another fence line. Grant County Sheriff's Office flew an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) over Kelly and Luksich to locate them and observe their actions due to the reports of the shots fired in the campground.
Kelly fired multiple shots at the UAV while it was airborne, striking it once. The UAV was recording video while flying overhead Kelly and Luksich, documents stated.
Documents stated that Kelly and Luksich were together along the fence line in the farm field and at multiple times, Luksich laid down on the ground and Kelly sat either on her, or sat next to her and leaned over her.
Luksich began to walk north away from Kelly. She turned around and Kelly then fired a shot at and struck Luksich's foot with a bullet, causing injury to her foot, and a second shot that struck her upper leg, causing life-threatening injuries that resulted in permanent injuries to Luksich.
Then a police officer shot Kelly who was taken into custody and transported to a Spokane hospital, where he received medical treatment for his injuries.
His next court date arraignment is scheduled for July 5 at 9 a.m. However, a defense indicated they anticipate pushing the date back. The judge also issued no-contact orders for each of the victims and families involved.
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