Seattle man charged with assault in Renton fatal shooting case

RENTON -- King County prosecutors have filed assault charges against a man who was allegedly involved in a gunfight that killed a woman in Renton.

Prosecutors accuse Linzy Jerome Hopkins of escalating a fistfight into a gun battle between two groups at Liberty Park on May 22, 2013.

Charging documents contend that Hopkins pulled out a pistol and opened fire.  A 20-year old woman, Lonnie Reynolds, was caught in the crossfire and fatally wounded.

While prosecutors have charged Hopkins with assault and unlawful gun possession, neither Hopkins nor the man he's accused of trading shots with have been charged in Reynolds' murder.  A spokesman for the prosecutor's office declined to say which man is thought to have fired the fatal shot, and that Reynolds' death remains under investigation.

Renton police believe that the shooting resulted from a confrontation in the park between two groups that included Reynolds.  Police said that when two women began fighting, a man from Reynolds' group tried to break up the fight.  It was then that Hopkins allegedly began pistol-whipping the other man.  Police say Hopkins pulled out his gun and started shooting at another man, who had a gun and returned fire.

Police said that neither Hopkins nor the other gunman was wounded in the gunfire.  Reynolds, however, was wounded in the torso and collapsed; she later died at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

Prosecutors said that Hopkins fled the scene in a car and he may have fled to Mexico.  Police arrested the second alleged gunman at the park.