A woman killed early on Sunday in Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood was shot by her husband during an argument in a ride-hailing vehicle, police said.
Cameron Espitia, 31, is being held on US$3 million bail for investigation of homicide in the death of 29-year-old Jennifer Espitia, KCPQ-TV reported on Monday.
BOOM
An Uber driver told police that Jennifer Espitia was sitting in the front and Cameron Espitia was in the back seat shortly after midnight when they began arguing, according to probable cause documents.
The driver told police Cameron Espitia cursed repeatedly at his wife before the driver heard a boom and thought a tire had burst. The driver said he quickly realized Jennifer Espitia had been shot, documents said.
BAD NIGHT
The driver feared for his life and kept driving on Cameron Espitia’s orders, police said.
Eventually, he told the driver to pull over. After the man left the vehicle, the driver called police.
The woman was shot in the head and died at a Seattle hospital, police said.
Police arrested Espitia nearby. He told them he was not having a good night with his wife and had been drinking, documents said.
NO RECOLLECTION
Officers found a small pistol on Espitia in an ankle holster, police said.
Espitia told police he did not remember what happened, that he woke up in the bushes and did not know where he was, documents said.
He later said he had a faint recollection of being in the vehicle.
Jennifer Espitia graduated from Mercer Island High School in Washington and was on the rowing team at Saint Mary’s College in California, according to a college-athletics biography, the Seattle Times reported.
She had won a community-service award for work as a peer educator at Planned Parenthood, working at a day care center and building homes in Mexico.
Cameron Espitia worked for the US Coast Guard, court documents said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese