Update for Dec. 10
The 29-year-old man arrested earlier this week for investigation of homicide and assault in the shooting death of Jayme Thomas appeared in court on Dec. 9 and was marked with a $1 million bail, according to King County Prosecutors.

Prosecutors have until Dec. 12 to file charges against him.

Probable cause documents released on Friday show the suspect lived in Des Moines, about 1.5 miles away from the Redondo Beach parking lot where he is suspected of opening fire on a group of people after a verbal confrontation on Nov. 5. Jayme, who was sitting in the backseat of a car, was shot several times and later died from her injuries at Harborview. A 24-year-old male was also shot in both arms, leading to the potential assault charge.

An argument escalates into tragedy
According to the probable cause documents, witnesses told police around 2:30 a.m. early that morning an argument started up between the group Jayme was with and a group of Asian and African American males standing about 500 feet away.

A member of Jayme's group yelled an epithet at the males and they responded by "running towards the victim and her friends," court documents show.

Witnesses said an African American male pulled out a handgun and handed it to an Asian male who opened fire. Nine 9mm bullet casings were found on the ground and several bullets struck two vehicles and a building. Jayme was hit by several bullets, according to court documents.

The suspect in her murder was identified as one of the people in that group and after several more witness interviews by Des Moines detectives he was identified by three suspects as the shooter.

After police arrested the suspect on Dec. 7, court documents state he admitted to police that a friend handed him the gun and he fired several shots. He allegedly admitted he was the only shooter and claimed he was unaware Jayme was in the back seat of on of the vehicles "or that she had been killed."

Court documents state he also admitted to changing the rims on his vehicle and dumping his clothing after the shooting.

Update
The 29-year-old male suspect arrested on Dec. 8 for investigation of homicide and assault in the Des Moines shooting death of Jayme Thomas was charged with first and second degree assault in a 2009 shooting outside a Renton bar, but charges were ultimately dropped by prosecutors because “it appear(ed) unlikely that the State could prove all of the elements charged beyond a reasonable doubt,” according to court documents.

The suspect’s name will not be released until charges are officially filed against him, but jail records show only one individual booked for investigation of homicide and assault in the last 24 hours.

19-year-old Jayme Thomas was shot and killed while sitting in the backseat of a car in the early morning hours of Nov. 5 in a Redondo parking lot in Des Moines. An acquaintance of Jayme’s, Scott Kennedy, was also shot but survived.

According to probable cause documents in the 2009 shooting, a fight broke out between two groups, one primarily Samoan in ethnicity and the other primarily Asian. The fight started outside Pounders Bar and Grill in Renton around 1:30 a..m. on Sept. 5. As police arrived 15 to 25 people were seen fleeing as multiple gun shots rang out. Five patrons of the bar were hit by bullets, including one victim who was shot multiple times in the leg, requiring a tourniquet to “keep him from bleeding to death,” until paramedics arrived, according to police.

Witnesses saw three people pull out handguns and fire rounds (40 spent shell casings were found in the aftermath). The suspect in Jayme Thomas’s murder and his brother-in-law were identified as possible shooters and the suspect in Thomas’s case was tracked down by a canine unit shortly after the shooting. Officers found cocaine and a single loaded 9mm round in his pockets, according to court documents.

According to the probable cause document, several spent 9mm casings matching the one found in his pocket were found at the scene.

Witnesses were unable to positively identify the suspect as one of the shooters, according to court documents, and the charges were ultimately dropped against him on Feb. 2, 2010.

Court records show the suspect had prior convictions for display of a weapon in 2003 and DUI in 2006.

Dan Donohoe with the King County Prosecutor's office said the deadline for filing charges will likely be early next week and the suspect will make his first court appearance on Dec. 9.

The suspect was booked into the Seattle Correctional Facility on Dec. 8 at 2:22 a.m and as of 2:30 p.m. on the same day, he is still in jail.

Original post
Des Moines Police and Valley SWAT Team arrested a 29-year-old Asian male in the shooting death of 19-year-old Jayme Thomas, according to Sgt. Bob Bohl with the department.

The man was also arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon for shooting Scott Kennedy, an acquaintance of Thomas who was with her in the early hours of Nov. 5 in Redondo.

The suspect was arrested at his home without incident late last night, on Dec. 7, the same night a huge showing of community support convened at Jayme's Ressurection Lutheran Church in Des Moines to raise funds for the reward in her killer's capture.

Sgt. Bohl accredited the arrest largely to "tips and leads from the community."

"Jayme Thomas was shot and killed as she sat in the backseat of a vehicle and Scott Kennedy was shot standing outside of a vehicle while they in Redondo during the early morning of November 5, 2011," Bohl said in a press release.