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Victim`s family issues statement after carjacking, shooting
Victim`s family issues statement after carjacking, shooting
KENT, Wash. -- Police arrested a suspect in a carjacking in Kent, Washington, that ended with the death of a 38-year-old man, and now we're hearing from the victim's wife.
The suspect is a 23-year-old Kent man. His name was not immediately released because he has not been formally charged yet.
State Corrections officials told Q13 News the suspect had not spent time in prison, but was under community supervision beginning in September, 2017. The agency expected to end his supervision by the end of June, 2019 had no new charges been filed against the suspect. The suspect had originally been convicted of two counts of possession of a stolen vehicle from King County.
Police said a second person of interest in the case also has been identified. He is cooperating with the investigation and it has been determined that he is not a suspect in this case.
The carjacking happened about 8 p.m. Monday. A suspect made a forced entry into a pickup as it was stopped at the gate of a storage facility. The suspect then drove from the scene - with owner Jered Sperling still inside the truck - before officers arrived. The truck was found later at a Kent apartment complex with Sperling's body in the truck bed.
Strangers and neighbors continued showing their grief and support for Sperling's family by leaving cards and flowers at the storage facility.
"Them knowing there are good people out here and there are people that care might make a little difference," said Terrina Rowan who left flowers. "My prayers go out to the family, and all of us in Kent in this community just want to see things get better."
“I find it so terribly confusing as to how this could happen to the kindest, biggest heart," the victim's wife, Cynthia Sperling, said in a statement Wednesday. "I don’t know how someone from the community Jered worked so hard to improve and show love to could act so senselessly.”
Read the full statement below:
The Associated Press contributed to this report.