Kennewick shooting suspect turns himself in

Hakim Ward’s mother doesn’t believe her son would attack a man without being provoked.

“He was a good, good kid,” Clara James told the Herald. “He never gave me any problems. .... He was not the type of person to lay hands on you unless you lay hands on him.”

Ward, 28, died Sunday morning after an alleged confrontation between him and Devan Thompson, 31, of Everett.

Thompson turned himself in on Tuesday evening. He is in the Benton County jail with a $100,000 bail facing a charge of first-degree unlawful possession of a gun.

In a phone interview with police, Thompson said he fired the gun into the ground to scare off Ward, police say. The bullet ended up hitting his leg while he was in the parking lot of the Red Lion Hotel at 1101 N. Columbia Center Blvd.

A friend took the wounded man across the street into the parking lot near Payless Shoe Source, where medics picked him up. He was taken to Trios Southridge Hospital.

A Benton County Coroner’s Office autopsy found Ward died from blood loss due to the wound in his leg, Chief Deputy Roy McLean said.

Police said the confrontation between Thompson and Ward started the night before when they began arguing on social media. Thompson, his fiancée and one other witness reported Ward began punching him through an open car window before he fired the .40 caliber pistol.

Thompson reported the disagreement started the night before on social media.

It’s a story that James finds hard to swallow about her son. He only was in trouble in school once, and never had problems with the law. Ward graduated from Southridge High School about 10 years ago. He moved to Arkansas with his mother, older sister and younger brother for a couple years before heading back to the Tri-Cities about five years ago.

James and his friend Mike Ellis described him as a good friend, who liked people, movies and sports. He had adopted his girlfriend’s child and would offer to help those in need. His kindness extended to his sister, who has cerebral palsy, and a brother, who is autistic, James said.

It was an opinion echoed by others on social media and on a memorial page for victims of gun violence.

“He was a big kid,” James said. “He was always happy. ... If you needed help he would run up there and help. Whatever you need.”

This story was originally published October 9, 2018 at 12:51 PM.