Gun tied to shipyard ex-worker

The SeaTac man arrested yesterday in the killing of two men and the wounding of two others at a Lake Union shipyard in November is a disgruntled former employee who served time in prison and has had numerous run-ins with the law.

Police linked the 30-year-old suspect, Kevin William Cruz, to the shootings through a gun found Sunday by a bicyclist in bushes at Gas Works Park, not far from the crime scene. The gun had been reported stolen in a Renton burglary, and police said Cruz had been listed as a suspect in that case.

At a hearing this afternoon at the King County Jail, prosecutors planned to ask that bail be set at $3 million because they consider Cruz a high flight risk, said Dan Donohoe, spokesman for the county Prosecutor's Office. "Given the serious nature of the allegation, that's a great concern," he said.

On Nov. 3, a man wearing a cap, sunglasses and dark overcoat over camouflage clothing walked quietly into the Northlake Shipyard office, opened fire with a 9-mm semiautomatic pistol, then walked back outside without saying a word.

Though eyewitnesses reported seeing someone matching the gunman's description walk toward Gas Works Park, an extensive search that included police dogs, SWAT teams, a helicopter and patrol officers failed to find him.

Killed were Peter Giles, 26, of Seattle, and marine engineer Russell James Brisendine, 43, of Lynnwood. Giles, a bookkeeper, was the nephew of the shipyard owners. A receptionist in his 20s and a fisherman in his 50s were also wounded but survived.

The motive apparently involves discontinued disability payments.

Cruz, claiming he'd been injured at the shipyard job, was receiving payments from a private insurance carrier. But the money was cut off when "medical evidence indicated there was no further disability," said Jeannine Lupton, a spokeswoman for the federal Department of Labor.

It apparently was a videotape of an able-bodied Cruz doing physical work that brought about an end to the payments, police said this morning. It was not clear whether the video was made by the insurer, a private investigator or someone else.

Police said they believe Cruz had planned the attack for some time, noting that he had altered his appearance before the shootings, growing a beard, mustache and long hair. They also said he cut his hair and shaved immediately after the killings.

Ex-wife says he's violent

This morning, Emelia Cavuoto of Renton, who was married briefly to Cruz in 1990, said he had a bad temper and sometimes beat her, but she never imagined he might be capable of murder.

"This really surprises me that he would have gone this far over the edge," she said.

Cavuoto said her marriage to Cruz ended after she got a letter from a former boyfriend and Cruz became enraged, hurling a telephone at her and throwing her over a chair.

When he was not violent, though, she said, he was supportive and kind.

"The moments when he attacked me were very bad," she said. "The rest of the moments we had were good."

She said she last saw Cruz about three years ago, when she ran into him in Burien. He told her he had just gotten out of prison, and that because of his felony record, he could not own a gun and was having a tough time finding anything but odd jobs.

She said he told her that he hoped his siblings would not go down the same path he had taken and that he hadn't been involved with anyone since their divorce because he didn't want to risk treating another woman as badly as he had treated her.

`He struck me as a kid'

John Benson, a superintendent for Ocean Services, a business on North Lake Union, knew Cruz casually.

"He struck me as a kid, he had tattoos and stuff, probably been in jail," said Benson, describing Cruz as like a lot of people who come and go on the docks, generally transient laborers.

Benson said Cruz seemed more humorous than threatening.

"He wasn't scary. He was a comedian kind of guy - he was kind of funny. Not real high on the intelligence level. . . . He seemed to me like a guy who was just trying to work and make some money."

Neighbors are relieved

The arrest has brought a measure of relief to the shipyard neighborhood, said George Neilson, president of Lake Union Drydock.

"We're glad to see they've finally been able to put something together," Neilson said. "I guess I'm not surprised it was a past employee. I can't imagine what would make someone unknown to them come in and do something like that."

Jack Starbird works in an office upstairs from the Northlake Shipyard headquarters. He said that when he heard the news, he was relieved.

"There would never be a cessation to the way the family feels if there hadn't been an arrest," he said. "The building feels better. Everybody in the building was pretty down in the mouth for a long time."

Another person in the building said: "I'm happy they caught him. I hope it's the real guy. It will be nice to get back to normal around here, if you can do it after something like that."

Jim Beaton, owner of the Western Queen, a ship at Lake Union, was a friend of the victims and expressed surprise "that it was just a disgruntled employee. I thought it was more complex than that."

Beaton often employs laborers and temporary workers and says he is much more careful now about whom he hires and how he deals with them, going so far as to let others feel they have the upper hand in disputes.

Suspect has a long record

Cruz was arrested at his home yesterday evening for investigation of murder and attempted murder, said Seattle police Capt. John Diaz. Cruz was questioned last night by Seattle homicide detectives and was booked into King County Jail overnight.

This morning, no one answered the door at his home, a tiny blue place under the flight path of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where he has been living with his mother.

A Rottweiler was tied to a tree in the unkempt yard. Construction material was stacked in the yard, with old blue tarps and boxes of rubbish.

Along with domestic abuse, Cruz's criminal record includes hit-and-run driving, vehicle theft and escape.

In 1990, he was arrested by a Port of Seattle police officer and charged with stealing a motorcycle.

When he stopped Cruz for not wearing eye protection, the officer noted that Cruz could not produce a driver's license, the motorcycle had no license plates, the identification number had been altered and the ignition had been damaged.

Cruz pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 days in jail and ordered to pay a $530 fine. A bench warrant was issued for his arrest when he failed to make the payments.

Cruz spent almost two years in prison, first for hit-and-run driving and, second for a brief escape, according to Veltry Johnson, spokesman for the Washington State Department of Corrections.

When Cruz was released from prison in January 1998, he owed restitution of $605. He still owes $515, Johnson said.

Cavuoto, the former wife, said Cruz tried to contact her just before the shipyard shootings.

He telephoned her mother last fall but her mother, who had persuaded her to divorce Cruz years earlier, did not put her in touch with him.

Now Cavuoto wonders whether she should have intervened.

"Maybe the fact he was trying to get ahold of me in September or October was because he was having trouble" in his life, she said.

Gun was handled, wiped off

The pistol was found Sunday, when 24-year-old Tim Walter of Lynnwood discovered it in a backpack about 10 feet off the bike path in Gas Works Park.

"That was a key piece that certainly did help," said Diaz, declining to elaborate on the evidence other than to say it was being processed at the state crime lab.

Detective Dick Gagnon said yesterday that police think the reason they didn't find the items earlier is that the thick tangle of bushes only recently lost its foliage.

Walter said he was wearing leather gloves when he cleared away branches, pulled the bag out and unzipped it to find a moldy camouflage jacket, high-top sneakers, leather hat, a few loose bullets and a canvas holster. In a small compartment, he saw a toiletry kit.

Inside the jacket pocket, he found a handgun with three rounds remaining. In another pocket, he discovered a full clip. Leaving the other items behind, he pocketed the pistol and ammunition and headed home.

Later, he said, friends and roommates handled the pistol. Walter's roommate Jeremy Nordaker, 23, said he didn't immediately make a connection between the discovery and Northlake Shipyard shooting. But that evening, he became worried about the gun's history and wiped his fingerprints from the gun.

"I did think that this gun probably had been used to kill somebody," Nordaker said. "Why else would someone throw it in the bushes?"

Sunday night, Walter hid the gun beneath his night stand and went to sleep.

On Monday morning, Walter's father convinced him that the gun might be connected to the shootings. Together, they brought the gun to the Seattle Police Department's North Precinct, then took detectives to where Walter had found it. Everything was still in the backpack except the hat, Walter said.

"It would have been better if I had turned it in right away," Walter said. "But they have so much evidence from the bag, I guess it was OK."

Seattle Times staff reporters Keiko Morris, Mark Rahner, Steve Miletich, Dave Birkland, Peyton Whitely, Nancy Bartley and David Postman contributed to this report.