Slaying Suspect May Have Fled -- Man Charged In Parking-Garage Shooting
A 23-year-old man suspected of killing a Seattle parking-garage attendant early Sunday near the Pike Place Market may have left the area with his girlfriend, police said.
The King County Prosecutor's Office yesterday charged Michas Taitano of Seattle with the first-degree murder and first- and second-degree robbery of Tarekegne Worku, an Ethiopian immigrant who was working at the parking garage at 2001 Western Ave. when he was shot shortly after midnight Sunday.
Police said Taitano had indicated to friends in recent days that he was planning to leave the area with his girlfriend.
Taitano, a 5-foot-6, 175-pound light-skinned African American, fit a suspect's description given by Worku's wife, Ruth Belai, who witnessed the shooting.
Just before the shooting, Belai - who had left the couple's two small children sleeping in her car - brought dinner to Worku. As she was returning to the car, a man in a ski mask approached Worku and demanded the money from his parking till. Although Worku backed up and put his hands in the air, police said, the gunman shot him in the chest and grabbed about $200 from the till.
Seattle Police Detective Kevin O'Keefe said police were led to Taitano following a telephone tip on Wednesday from an acquaintance who implicated him in the slaying. That tip prompted police to contact other friends and acquaintances of the suspect, he said.
"It started with a phone call from one person, which led us to
the next person, which led us to the next person and the next person," O'Keefe said.
According to police, Taitano allegedly told a woman Sunday that he had been involved in a shooting earlier that day. In four other instances, police say, Taitano allegedly dropped hints that linked him to the crime.
When Worku's slaying was reported on television Sunday, according to charging papers, Taitano told a friend that he "might have done it" and was "probably going to leave town." He mentioned leaving town again two days later, prosecutors said, when he told an acquaintance that he was nervous and frightened.
About 12 hours before the shooting, Taitano - who had incurred more than $2,000 in traffic and other minor violations over the previous six years - allegedly told a friend that he was "tired of being broke" and was going to do something about it. He then showed the friend a Colt .357-caliber revolver and bullets that the friend said looked gold, according to prosecutors.
On Wednesday he reportedly went to an acquaintance's home to pick up a backpack he had left there. Prosecutors said Taitano and his girlfriend both had their bags packed.
O'Keefe, however, declined to name Taitano's girlfriend or to provide her description.
"This girl didn't do anything, and I don't want to bring her, her family and her friends into" a media blitz, he said.
According to court records, Taitano has a criminal record that includes a 1994 conviction for fourth-degree assault.
While police searched for Taitano, dozens of Worku's friends and co-workers walked from Capitol Hill to Pike Place Market last night during a candlelight vigil. Belai and her children missed the vigil, having returned to Ethiopia for Worku's funeral.