PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. — The fatal Tacoma bar shooting over the weekend that left two people dead and three injured was the result of an escalated dispute, court documents in the case reveal.
Tacoma police said around 1:30 a.m. Sunday, five people total were shot at The Alleycat Patio and Lounge on 6th Avenue. Later that afternoon, the shooter turned himself in at police headquarters with his lawyer present.
Alante Bryan Peterson, 28, was charged with two counts of first-degree aggravated murder, two counts of first-degree murder and three counts of assault for the three others injured in the shooting. He pleaded not guilty on Tuesday.
A witness who recorded video of an altercation between two of the victims and the alleged shooter told police the defendant "started firing indiscriminately into the bar" after the two victims were shot, according to court documents.
Peterson allegedly fled the scene after the shooting, but was later identified through a photo lineup as the shooter by one of the witnesses, court documents said. A woman who was allegedly with Peterson at the bar that night contacted the witness who recorded cell phone video of the altercation and told her to delete it, prosecutors said
There were several different accounts of what led up to the shooting provided to police at the scene, but court documents said the cell phone video captured a heated argument between one of the surviving victims and the defendant not long before the shooting.
No immediate updates were available on the condition of the three surviving victims.