Former NBA star Shawn Kemp charged in parking good deal shooting

SEATTLE (AP) — Prosecutors in Washington condition charged former NBA star Shawn Kemp on Friday with to start with-diploma assault in a parking ton shooting final thirty day period more than a stolen cellphone, indicating that in a text message just before the capturing, Kemp wrote, “I’m about to shoot this (expletive).”

Kemp was arrested soon after the capturing outside the house the Tacoma Mall on March 8. No a person was wounded, and Kemp’s attorneys have insisted he returned hearth in self protection right after monitoring and attempting to retrieve a cellphone that experienced been stolen from him previously that day.

In a created assertion despatched by protection lawyer Tim Leary on Friday, Kemp’s legal staff stated he would plead not responsible: “He is self-confident that once the jury hears from the witnesses and sees the proof at trial, they will conclude that he was justified in defending himself that afternoon.”

A possible trigger statement by Tacoma police, filed in Pierce County Top-quality Court on Friday, did not suggest Kemp was shot at. It claimed some of his statements were being not corroborated by surveillance movie, and that the text information despatched just 13 minutes right before he arrived at the mall confirmed his intent.

The document mentioned Kemp informed police that following getting shot at he went again to his possess car or truck, parked numerous places away, to get his own gun. But the video confirmed that he was armed with the weapon when he approached the parked Toyota 4Runner the place he experienced tracked his phone.

In accordance to the assertion, Kemp tracked his mobile phone to a Toyota 4Runner activity-utility car or truck that was parked in close proximity to a JCPenney section keep. He parked his personal vehicle, a Porsche, quite a few spots away, grabbed a handgun out of a backpack and approached the 4Runner, the statement stated.

The statement said he fired 3 situations into the Toyota and then threw his gun into some bushes. The driver of the 4Runner appeared to duck one of the pictures and at some point drove off, it mentioned. Only about 5 minutes elapsed from the time Kemp arrived until eventually the time the 4Runner still left.

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The bullets that struck the 4Runner went as a result of the entrance license plate mount, the front quarter panel toward the steering wheel, and by way of the entrance passenger doorway.

Kemp is due to be arraigned May 4.

Kemp, who has two licensed hashish outlets in Seattle, was a six-time NBA all-star and played for the Seattle SuperSonics from 1989 to 1997. He also played for Cleveland, Portland and Orlando.

Kemp debuted in the NBA all through the 1989-90 season as a 20-calendar year-old who had in no way performed university basketball. He grew to become identified for his substantial-flying dunks.