SPOKANE, Wash. — 253 pages of court documents reveal how phone records, Facebook messages, and witnesses lead Spokane police to two gang members, now charged with first-degree murder.
On New Year's Eve 2022, gunshots rang out in the parking lot of the Park View apartments near 7th Avenue and Perry Street. Thomas Carlos, 42, was shot multiple times in his parked Mercedes. Doctors pronounced him dead minutes after he arrived at the hospital.
Carlos lived in his car, and occasionally slept at a friend's apartment in the complex. According to court documents, that friend also knew the two suspects, and told police he saw one of them, Elijiah Harvey, 30, standing next to the victim's car, holding a gun.
Harvey, who also goes by Dopey, appeared in court Thursday, nearly one-year after the deadly shooting. His friend, Takao Bay, 27, is also in jail charged with first-degree murder.
According to court documents, the two took off in a Kia moments after the shooting and ditched the vehicle near Minnehaha Park. An officer found the car the next day.
The witness who police say originally identified Harvey died in July of a fentanyl overdose.
As the investigation continued, court documents reveal Harvey's mom cooperated with detectives and identified her son in surveillance video, captured seconds after the shooting.
According to court documents, she told detectives her son broke into her apartment last December, wearing only shoes and underwear, saying he needed to get rid of everything because it had blood on it.
Harvey's mom told police her son is a liar, thinks he's invincible and smarter than the police, and can't function in society, according to court documents.
Several residents at the Park View apartments told detectives the victim was trying to clean up problems there and stood up to gang members. A decision they believe cost Carlos his life.
Harvey is being held on $1 million bond. Bay appeared in court on Friday and is also being held on a $1 million bond.
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