The victim, Edixon Velasquez, 25, was fatally shot Tuesday after he agreed to meet his ex-girlfriend outside his Seattle home, police say. She acknowledged being there that evening, but said she doesn’t know the gunman.
Seattle police say a 21-year-old Burien woman lured her ex-boyfriend out of his West Seattle house Tuesday evening so he could be gunned down by an accomplice, according to King County prosecutors.
Anna Kasparova was arrested early Wednesday, and a judge on Thursday found probable cause to hold her on investigation of homicide, setting her bail at $500,000.
Prosecutors charged her with first-degree murder on Friday and requested that her bail be increased to $1 million.
Though Kasparova isn’t accused of fatally shooting 25-year-old Edixon Velasquez, she is alleged to have lured him into an ambush.
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Kasparova “appears to have set the victim up for this murder, luring him out of his home with a ruse,” King County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Wyman Yip wrote in charging papers. “Even more chilling is the fact that the defendant appears to have no remorse for her substantial role in this murder.”
Her alleged accomplice remains at large, according to police.
According to the charges, Seattle police responded to a report of gunshots in the 8100 block of 31st Avenue Southwest just before 7 p.m. Tuesday, and found Velasquez lying in the street with gunshot wounds to his chest and right leg.
Velasquez died at the scene.
His roommates told police the victim’s ex-girlfriend, who they identified as “Anna,” had called Velasquez and told him she urgently wanted to meet him at his house. As the three roommates were about to sit down to dinner, the suspect texted Velasquez to say she’d arrived but didn’t want to come inside, and asked him to come out, charging papers say.
The roommates questioned why she didn’t just come in, but then Velasquez announced he was going outside to help her park her car.
Velasquez was gone only a couple of minutes before his roommates heard a gunshot, the charges say.
One of the roommates went outside and saw the ex-girlfriend get into her car, which was parked outside the house, and drive off. He then saw Velasquez lying in the street.
Police obtained video-surveillance footage from one of Velasquez’s neighbors that showed a black sedan pass Velasquez’s house at least twice before stopping near the residence. On its third pass, the vehicle pulled into a parking space across the street from Velasquez’s house without any difficulty, charging papers say.
After about 45 seconds, the driver inexplicably pulled back into the street and attempted to parallel park in front of Velasquez’s house.
“This new parking spot is quite large (at least two car lengths long), yet the black sedan stops partially in the street,” a detective wrote in charging papers.
About a minute later, Velasquez is seen exiting his house. He walked up to the driver’s door and a woman was seen getting out.
As Velasquez got behind the wheel of the car, the woman “curiously walks across the street, appearing to take cover behind a parked vehicle,” the charges say. At that point, a man in a hooded sweatshirt approached the woman’s car, opened the driver’s door and pulled Velasquez from the vehicle.
“There appears to be barely a struggle, as Velasquez falls to the ground,” the detective wrote in charging papers.
The charges seem to indicate that the camera angle didn’t capture the actual shooting.
The man ran away while the woman appeared to “calmly walk back towards Velasquez,” the charges say. “The timing is such that the female and the hooded male actually cross paths, neither appearing to be startled or concerned by the other.”
The woman in the video looked down at Velasquez and then got back in her car and drove off without making any attempt to help him, the charges say.
When Kasparova was arrested at her mother’s house in Burien early Wednesday morning, detectives noted her black Acura was parked in the driveway, according to the charges.
Police say Kasparova denied knowing the shooter or the motive for Velasquez’s homicide, but she acknowledged she was outside his house at the time of the shooting. She also acknowledged she did not help Velasquez and never called 911, the charges say.
Kasparova’s alleged accomplice, whose name is on a form included with the charges, does not appear in the King County Jail’s online register.