Gunfire erupts during violent weekend

Five shootings reported in less than 24 hours

Matt Baide | Apr 20, 20230

One person is dead and four others injured, including one critically, in a series of weekend shootings across Mason County.

On Saturday, Shelton Police responded to three shootings within four hours, according to a Shelton PD news release.

The first occurred at 7:38 p.m. near East Fir and Otter streets in Shelton’s Capitol Hill neighborhood and was determined to be a homicide. Officers arrived to find two victims, one dead and another critically injured with multiple gunshot wounds.

The injured person was stabilized by Central Mason Fire & EMS personal and airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. The person’s status was unknown as of the Journal’s press time.

Shelton Police identified Pablo Calmo Abelino as the deceased victim.

Officers were told descriptions of a vehicle, and they later located the vehicle, taking three juveniles into custody. The three were arrested on unrelated charges, according to a Tuesday news release, and investigators determined they were not suspects in the Saturday homicide.

The second shooting, according to the release, occurred around 11:20 p.m. Saturday in the 200 block of East B Street in Shelton. No injuries were reported in the shooting and no suspects have been identified.

The third shooting occurred around 11:35 p.m. in the 1000 block of Ellinor Avenue in Shelton. Officers arrived and found one person injured. CMFE treated the person and transported the person to Capital Medical Center in Olympia.

A news release Tuesday by Shelton Police identified Sebastian Ahilon-Escalante and Eric Jose Carillo Mendoza as the two arrested on felony assault charges related to the shooting on Ellinor Avenue.

The release said Shelton Police are attempting to determine whether the shootings are related.

“We started the weekend off with a homicide and attempted homicide in a vehicle here in the city up on Capitol Hill,” Mason County Sheriff’s Office Undersheriff Travis Adams told Mason County commissioners during Monday’s briefing. “It was definitely a targeted event from people who we presume probably know each other. That was immediately followed by two drive-by shootings in the city that were confirmed and a third one that was reported but not necessarily confirmed by evidence.”

Adams said the city asked the Sheriff’s Office to assist with the homicide and drive-by shooting investigations.

Adams also noted a disturbance in the Dayton trails area involving an altercation between two people, and a firearm was discharged in a house. The bullet went through the floor of the house and hit someone in the hand in the floor below. Chief Deputy of Operations Jason Dracobly told the Journal the injured person is OK and the suspect was taken into custody.

The Journal called Shelton Police four times and emailed chief Carole Beason once for more information but did not receive a response.

On Sunday, a call came in at 8:16 a.m. regarding a man who had been shot in the leg. The caller stated someone shot her boyfriend near Larson Boulevard in Belfair, according to the Mason County Sheriff’s Office. The Sheriff’s Office later identified in a social media post the suspect as Nathan Fouts. The post stated Fouts is a 33-year-old man about 5-foot-8, 175 pounds with dark hair. He was not reported in custody as of the Journal’s press time.

The victim was taken to the hospital and treated for injuries.

“This was a disturbance, an altercation between two people who knew each other and a fight ensued and a shooting occurred, struck one person in the leg,” Adams said. “That person is being treated as well. It’s a combination of a whole bunch of things going on. The city is having some definite manpower issues right now as a lot of law enforcement agencies are so they reached out to us to ask us to give them a hand so our detectives were out pretty much all weekend between helping the city in their investigations as well as doing our investigations.”

Fouts is believed to be armed and may still be in Belfair or possibly Bremerton, according to Dracobly. The Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident and asks whether anyone has information or sees him, do not approach him and call 911.

Dracobly said the weekend was extremely manpower intensive and put a lot of folks into overtime.

“Between the shootings in the city and shooting in Dayton and then the next morning in Belfair, in the 12-hour period, we responded to six different shootings,” Dracobly said. “I don’t remember a weekend like this ever and I’ve been here for 30-plus years.”