Bremerton-based sailor charged with murder for shooting strangers in Pioneer Square

A sailor assigned to Naval Base Kitsap was charged for allegedly shooting three strangers and killing one of them in a public parking lot outside a nightclub in Seattle’s Pioneer Square on Feb. 25. Seattle police arrested him at Naval Base Kitsap on March 11 and he is now in custody at King County Correctional Facility in Seattle.

Victor Marshall, 23, with a Bremerton address, was charged with one second-degree murder and two first-degree assaults at the King County Superior Court, according to documents filed to the court on March 14.

Marshall was accused of shooting three individuals and killing one of them in a public parking lot in downtown Seattle with other people nearby, Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Raymond Lee wrote in a prosecuting attorney case summary filed to the court.

The person who died was Stuart Roberts II and the two injured were Roberts' friends, according to court documents.

The three victims are strangers to Marshall. The only interaction between the sailor and the victims was from the parking lot, where two of them were engaged in an argument among themselves when they were shot by Marshall, Lee wrote in the summary.

"Based on interview of various witness, there does not appear to be a clear explanation why the defendant felt the need to shoot three separate strangers in a public place," Lee wrote.

At approximately 8:48 p.m. on March 11, Seattle Police Department detectives arrested Marshall at Naval Base Kitsap-Bremerton, according to a superform filed to King County District Court. Naval Criminal Investigative Service(NCIS) escorted Marshall from NBK property where the Seattle Police Department, the primary on the investigation, subsequently made the arrest, NCIS spokesperson Darwin Lam told Kitsap Sun.

His bail was set to be $4 million, court documents said. As of Wednesday, Marshall remains in custody at the King County Correctional Facility in Seattle.

Marshall is assigned to Naval Base Kitsap and the parking/traffic office. He performs administrative duties related to on-base parking procedures, NBK spokesperson Katy Crabtree said. Lam said that NCIS is conducting an investigation into allegations of domestic violence by Marshall and no charges have been filed at this time.

Shooting in parking lot outside OHM nightclub

According to documents filed to the superior court, the Seattle Police Department responded to a report of someone being shot and found three people injured with gunshot wounds on Feb. 25. A 25-year-old man was found on the east side of the OHM nightclub at 172 S Washington St. A woman, also 25, was found in the parking lot west of the nightclub. The woman told officers that she was in the parking lot having an argument with her boyfriend — the man who was shot and found on the east side of the club — and that during the argument another man began shooting at them.

The two injured were transported to Harborview Medical Center.

The third victim, later identified as Stuart Roberts II, 25, was transferred from the nightclub by a female friend, 22, to Virginia Mason Medical Center, the dispatch told the detectives and Seattle Fire Department personnel at the scene. Due to the critical nature of Roberts' injuries, the fire department subsequently transported him to Harbor Medical Center, where he died from multiple gunshot wounds, according to court documents.

According to the 22-year-old woman who sent Roberts to the hospital, the couple, who are friends of Roberts, were arguing about their relationship and she and Roberts were trying to de-escalate the situation when the shooting happened, the court documents said.

Using surveillance video, detectives learned that the shooter arrived with several friends in three separate vehicles at approximately 10:15 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 24 and parked at the parking lot. Marshall had gone to the nightclub with several friends that he knew from the military. After leaving the club, Marshall asked a friend of him to hand his gun, which Marshall previously left in the friend's vehicle before entering the club, back to him. Marshall was sitting on the back of a friend's vehicle moments before the shooting, according to the court documents.

On March 11, when detectives contacted Marshall at the Bremerton base, the sailor declined to provide a statement to the police. Photos of Marshall, who has distinctive tattoos on his hand and neck, were taken and similar tattoos can be seen on surveillance video of Marshall from inside the club. He was taken into custody and booked into the King County Jail.

Marshall's firearm used in the shooting has not been recovered. He faces a standard range of about 41 to 53 years for these charges, including the firearm enhancement, according to the court documents.

Editor's Note: The story has been updated since it was first published to add information about the allegations of domestic violence by Marshall.