Pasco teen arrested in deadly gang-related highway shooting
A 17-year-old is in juvenile detention for killing another teen during a targeted gang-motivated drive-by last week on Interstate 182 in Pasco. The victim died earlier this week.
Cannon Lopez of Pasco was arrested late Wednesday night by the city’s Street Crimes Unit.
He was booked into the Benton-Franklin Juvenile Detention Center on suspicion of first-degree murder, Pasco police said Thursday on Facebook.
Police believe the teen targeted the 18-year-old victim, and that it was gang-related.
An autopsy on the victim, whose name has not been released, was being finished Thursday morning, said Franklin County Coroner Curtis McGary.
“The mother has asked that we not release his name and, out of respect to her, we’re not going to,” McGary told the Tri-City Herald.
He died Tuesday, nearly a week after being shot while driving on the interstate near Road 44.
Pasco detectives have been hunting for suspects since someone opened fire from a compact car into a black Toyota Celica, as they headed west on Interstate 182 toward Road 68, Pasco police said.
Lopez’s criminal history only shows a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge in 2018 for allegedly yelling loudly at another person in a Chiawana High School classroom. The case was dismissed and sent to diversion because it was the teen’s first “criminal referral,” court documents show.
Anyone with information about the highway shooting is asked to call police through the non-emergency dispatch number at 509-628-0333 or email Detective Julie Lee at leej@pasco-wa.gov or Detective Jed Abastillas at abastillasj@pasco-wa.gov.
This story was originally published June 11, 2020 at 9:19 AM.