Music festival gunman identified as U.S. Soldier

| June 22, 2023

The gunman accused of shooting people at a Washington state music festival has been identified as James M. Kelley. He is a Soldier stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord and assigned to the 75th Ranger Regiment. He was booked into jail on two counts of murder, two counts of assault, and one count of domestic violence. Given the domestic violence charge, there may be more to the events that make up this story.

From the Military Times:

James M. Kelly, 26, of Joint Base Lewis-McChord was booked into the Grant County Jail Tuesday on investigation of two counts of murder, two counts of assault and one count of domestic violence assault, Grant County Sheriff Joe Kriete said in a Facebook post. Law enforcement officers shot him Saturday and he was being treated at a hospital until Tuesday, the sheriff said.

The shooting killed two people and wounded two others in an area where people were camping for the Beyond Wonderland electronic dance music festival at the Gorge Amphitheatre.

The two people killed were Seattle residents Brandy Escamilla, 29, and Josilyn Ruiz, 26, Grant County Coroner Craig Morrison said Tuesday. Escamilla died of a gunshot wound to the head, and Ruiz died from a gunshot wound to her torso, Morrison said. The two were engaged to be married, according to a fundraising campaign by family members.

Lily Luksich, 20, of Mill Creek, Washington, and 31-year-old Andrew Cuadra of Eugene, Oregon, were shot and wounded, according to the sheriff.

A private security officer responding to the report of shots fired was struck by a bullet that deflected off her eyeglasses, causing bruising and lacerations, the sheriff said.

The Military Times, the Associated Press, and KXLY have additional information on this story.

Category: "Teh Stoopid", Crime, Veterans in the news

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ninja

“SPC James Kelly is a Joint Fire Support Specialist (13F) assigned to the 75th Ranger Regiment at Joint Base Lewis McChord. Kelly joined the Army in 2021.”

“Kelly’s hometown of record is Strongsville, Ohio. He has never been deployed, according to the Army.”

https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/crime/article276597331.html

ninja

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Anonymous

‘Shrooms and lowered standards to make nunbers.

Sapper3307

That is a barracks haircut if I ever saw one.

ninja

“Gorge Shooting Suspect Allegedly Had Mushroom Hallucination Prior To Deadly Shooting, Court Docs Say”

https://www.king5.com/amp/article/news/local/gorge-shooting-suspect-charged/281-6d180301-9f0c-4aab-9413-207ea2d1dcb8

“The suspect accused of killing two people and injuring two others at a music festival at the Gorge Ampitheatre last weekend was allegedly having a hallucination prior to the deadly shooting.”

“Kelly was attending the Beyond Wonderland music festival with his girlfriend when he had a dose of “shrooms” and started having hallucinations. Kelly started to think the world was ending. His girlfriend told authorities that Kelly said, “This is the end” and went to grab a gun from his car.”

“During the hallucination, court documents indicated Kelly fired multiple shots at Ruiz and Escamilla, who were walking in the area of the campground.”

“Kelly’s girlfriend called the police after the shots were fired and alerted authorities that he had a gun. She had two gunshot wounds to her lower body and needed treatment at the Samaritan Hospital in Moses Lake.”

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5JC

But I heard that using drugs was a victimless crime?

2banana

Way more to this story.

If a Ranger wanted to be a mass shooter, this would have been much worse.

Targeted? Lover Triangle?

26Limabeans

“Mushroom Hallucination”

Gives a whole new meaning to “Joint Base”
Qualed on the M-16 there on my way to Viet of the Nam.

Old tanker

Yep looks like the poster child for the old, this is your brain on drugs commercial. Drugs do just SO much good in society. Nothing bad ever happens when you take psychotropic medication for fun…

Since this is Washington, it will be the gun’s fault. It shoved those shrooms down his throat dontcha know.

MIRanger

I am sure they will have to put warning labels on guns now that say not to use psychadelic substances while operating now! because you know, the manufacture should have known how their product would be used.

Blaster

The state and local governments there have all but made drug use acceptable and legal. I wonder if they could be thinking- “maybe this wasn’t a good idea?”-

Of course, it will be THE GUNZ! Because the drugs were a “personal choice”

KoB

Dood don’t look like a whyte soopremeist so the gunz grabberz will have to play up the druggie crazed veteran angle. And EVERYBODY knows that ALL veterans are nothing but drug crazed killers…well…except for the proud members of the 69th Intersectional Dildo Brigade.

This punk has done brought shame to my Beloved Field Artillery and it’s just too bad that the detective didn’t go ahead and deliver the TSS making the perp a DRT.

Roh-Dog

One jab makes you larger

And one jab makes you small

And the ones that dotgov gives you

Don’t not kill you at all

Go ask Sarge

When he’s ten feet tall

And if you go chasing dragons

And you know you’re going to fail

Tell ’em a chain-smoking penguin

Has donekicked your tail

Call Sarge

When, shit, he just called

When blueman on the chessboard

Get up n’ cuff the shitoutyou

Cuz you’ve just had some kind of mushroom

n you mind is moving, yo!

Go ask Sarge

I think he’ll know

When logic and dykes

Have fallen sloppy dead

And the White Knight is talking UCMJ

And the Red Queen’s off with your head

Remember what SPC House said

Fuck your face

Fuck your face

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AW1Ed

C’mon, man. Give -Dog a gentleman’s B for the effort.

Roh-Dog

This POS and the completely avoidable damage that he wroughtéd has me angry beyond words.

It’s either ‘lash out’ at ‘internet friends’ with a bad song butchering or smash an ax into trees for a’while but it looks like rain, hence…

I hope this douche canoe doesn’t make it to trial and his final lesson is that ‘fist’ can be a verb.

Last edited 1 year ago by Roh-Dog
5JC

That reminds me of an old story that is quite hilarious. You need a little cheering up. Read the first story in this anthology “Sooner or Later or Never, Never“.

It’s neither SiFy nor fantasy; but one of the funniest stories ever written that no one has ever heard of.

https://ia800607.us.archive.org/2/items/Fantasy_Science_Fiction_v042n05_1972-05/Fantasy__Science_Fiction_v042n05_1972-05.pdf

AZRobert

When you Hallucinate on Dr. Pepper while White Penguin plays on 107.6 FM in Stereo, Nobody told me there’d be days like these, strange days indeed!

LGB

rgr1480

Rho-Dog,

That was pretty slick.

😉

RGR 4-78

Beat me to the airplane with that one.

A Proud Infidel®™

Great, now the left’s mindless minions in the mess media will now portray ALL Veterans as completely unstable and that we MUST be constantly monitored.

5JC

You are about 50 years too late with that complaint.