UPDATE | Convicted Seattle murderer arrested on $5M warrant for a Tri-Cities murder

A 43-year-old man was arrested this week in Ellensburg in connection with the murder of a Tri-Cities man at a troubled Richland apartment complex.

Court documents offer few details about what led to the shooting but it involved a 20-year-old father who was asked to help collect some children from the Columbia Park Apartments.

An argument erupted between Edree D’Love Thompson and a group he encountered there on May 19. Police believe it ended with Antoine R. “Peanut” Surge, 43, shooting and killing him.

Surge, a convicted murderer, was gone by the time officers arrived but police say they tracked him to Ellensburg after a $5 million warrant was issued May 22 for his arrest. He is charged with second-degree murder and illegally having a gun.

He remained Thursday in the Kittitas County jail

Online court records show he was previously convicted for killing his girlfriend’s estranged husband in King County in 2002 and was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

The Metro Drug Task Force and U.S. Marshals Service helped Richland detectives in their efforts to find him after the May 19 confrontation.

Richland police also had help from Ellensburg police, Pasco and West Richland police and the Benton County Sheriff’s Office.

A GoFundMe remembered Thompson, who had a young daughter, as a warm, respectful and upbeat person.

Thompson’s death is the third homicide at the apartment complex in recent years. The most recent happened on New Year’s Eve when Michael Castoreno, 21, was killed in a gang-related shooting while walking through the complex, according to court records.

Richland confrontation

On May 19, Thompson went to the apartment complex on Jadwin Avenue about 9 p.m. with Melissa Klug to help another woman get her kids from their father’s home, according to court documents.

A protection order was in place to keep the children’s parents from contacting each other.

When Thompson and Klug arrived, there was a group outside the apartment building. When the two approached the group, an argument erupted, according to court documents.

Witness accounts of the details of what Thompson said to the group differ. One person said he yelled “18th Street,” another said she heard Thompson yell to Klug to “pass it over,” according to court documents.

One person said Surge, who also goes by the name “Peanut,” came up behind Thompson with a gun in his hand. The gun was knocked out of his hand and went off when it hit the ground.

Surge picked up the gun and started chasing Thompson, said the witness.

Cellphone video taken during the incident, showed Thompson start to take off his sweatshirt, which was later found on the ground. Then it pans away and the shooting starts.

When the camera turns back toward Thompson, he’s running away and a second shot is heard.

Thompson was hit several times and taken to a local hospital, where he died a short time later on May 20.

Klug said the gunman then turned the pistol toward her. She got a gun from her car to protect herself and tried to shoot the suspect, but the gun didn’t fire, according to court documents.

She did not identify Surge as the shooter.

Suspect’s criminal history

If Surge is convicted of the murder, it would be his third “strike,” according to court records.

Washington state’s “three strikes law” generally mandates a life sentence for anyone who has committed three violent felonies.

His first came after an August 2001 shooting where he killed his girlfriend’s estranged husband in a fight at her Seattle home.

According to court documents, he was at the home with his girlfriend when Paul Jones came to drop off their two children. She went out to street to talk with him and he became upset and chased her inside.

When his estranged wife’s roommate tried calling 911, Jones broke her phone. He then turned his anger on Surge, challenging him and then knocking him to the ground.

Surge pulled out a .38 caliber handgun and chased Jones outside. He fired a single shot at Jones, hitting him in the head. Jones was taken to Harborview Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.

He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2002, and was sentenced to 16 years.

After his release, he got into trouble in Benton County in 2019, according to court documents. He ended up pleading guilty to second-degree assault in 2020 and was sentenced to three years in prison.

It wasn’t immediately known Thursday how much time he served for the convictions.

This story was originally published May 31, 2023 at 6:04 PM.