Man shot outside LA Fitness in Renton after breaking up basketball fight, witness says



RENTON, Wash. -- A 21-year-old man was shot in the arm while in a parking lot near the LA Fitness in Renton's Fairwood neighborhood Monday night, the King County Sheriff's Office said.

The victim's injury was not life threatening, a spokesman said.

A gunshot was reported shortly after 7 p.m. near 140th and Petrovitsky, the spokesman said. Witnesses reporting seeing four to five young black men in the parking lot, hearing a gunshot and then seeing one man running with what seemed to be a gun in his hand, the spokesman said.

A witness, Dawson Duff, told Q13 News that an argument started over basketball in the LA Fitness and then spilled out into the parking lot. A man tried to separate the two men who were fighting but he called the suspected shooter a "couple of offensive words",  Duff said.  As the man was walking to his car, the suspect went to his car, got a gun and shot the other man in the arm, Duff said. He tried to shoot again, but his gun apparently jammed, Duff said, and he then fled on foot.

The suspect was described as black, 20 to 25 years of age, about 5-foot-8, thin build, with short hair, wearing black sweats and a backpack.

Officers used a K-9 unit to try to track the suspect, but without success.