LYNNWOOD, Wash., June 22, 2022 – New reports obtained by the Lynnwood Times show the Daleway Park shooting incident, which resulted in the death of 70-year-old Carl Bridgmon, on April 5, was the result of a drug deal gone wrong. The social media platform Snapchat was used to organize transaction.
Katie Durkits, Snapchat communications team, offered the following statement regarding Leif Smith using Snapchat to organize drug deals.
“We are investing heavily in AI and machine learning tools to proactively detect dangerous drug activity on Snapchat (including tools that help us find likely drug content, imagery, emojis, text, and other probably indicators, and work with third party intelligence experts to find illicit drug-related content across other platforms that references Snapchat, so we can find drug dealers’ accounts and take swift action to shut them down.”
On April 5, approximately 2:30 p.m., Lynnwood Police responded to an assault with a weapon call at Daleway Park located at 1905 64th Avenue West in Lynnwood. Callers reported two black males running westbound on 190th Street Southwest and a black sedan driving away from the scene. When officers arrived, they found 70-year-old Carl Bridgmon deceased in the driver’s seat of his black Chevrolet Impala. There were several bullet holes on the driver’s side and Bridgmon was bleeding from the legs. Several rifle casings were found at the scene.
The Snohomish County Medical Examiner would later report the cause of death was gunshot wounds and the manner of death was homicide.
Officers contacted the two males who were seen fleeing earlier. According to the two young men,they had driven to an apartment complex to smoke marijuana when one of them saw a dealer named “Baba” post good marijuana prices to Snapchat. One of the victims told officers he had purchased marijuana from Baba twice in the past and contacted the dealer to meet at Daleway Park for the exchange.
Through Snapchat, Baba instructed the two males to enter the vehicle, a black sedan with tinted windows that was parked to the east of Bridgmon’s vehicle. Only one of the young men entered the vehicle and sat in the front passenger seat. Upon entry of the vehicle, the potential buyer noticed another person, a white male, sitting in the backseat.
When the buyer asked to inspect the product, which was sealed in a bag that obstructed viewing its quality, Leif Smith allegedly became angry and began to punch the prospective buyer.
According to the buyer, the white male in the backseat yelled, “Where is my money?”
The buyer screamed his friend’s name for help who was outside of the vehicle. His friend opened the car door and the two fled hearing loud “popping” sounds in the background. When they looked back, the white male who sat in the backseat earlier was now outside of the vehicle carrying a twelve-inch blue green rifle.
When officers questioned the victim his right jacket sleeve was torn, there was a small amount of blood at the corner of his mouth, a bruise to his right temple, scratches on his chest, and he alleged his money was gone.
His friend had a bleeding injury on his hand and an abrasion on his back.
A witness told officers that she heard the slap of running feet while parked between the northeast and southeast corners of the parking lot and saw two black males running, looking terrified. A white male, wearing white, stood outside of the driver’s side of the vehicle with a rifle that looked like a “tommy gun” with a CD sized drum about two inches thick. The white male was nonchalant and calm, the witness said, and drove away in his vehicle “quickly” but not “recklessly”.
Lynnwood Detective Sattarov searched Bridgmon’s phone and found he had filmed the altercation, shooting, and ultimately his own death, which allegedly corroborated the two male’s story.
On April 11, Detective Sergeant Jorgensen received a Crimestoppers tip from an anonymous source identifying the driver as 21-year-old Leif Smith. The other white male in the backseat of the vehicle was identified as the shooter by the tipster. According to the tipster, the rifle used in the shooting was registered to Smith and was in the backseat of the car.
Smith was arrested on May 24, at his Marysville residence, where he lived with his family, and was transported to the Snohomish County Jail.
Probable cause was found for Smith’s arrest in Everett District Court on May 25, and bail was set for $1 million for the charges of Assault 2 (with a weapon), Assault 1 (with a non-family gun), Robbery 1, and aggravated Murder 1.
According to a statement released by the family, Bridgmon loved to sit and have his coffee at the park several times a week. The family is distraught over this “senseless” tragedy. Bridgmon was caught in the crossfire between two groups of individuals and tragically murdered.
Below is the statement from Carl Bridgmon’s family in its entirety
Family of a beloved Lynnwood man, who was innocently killed during the April 5 senseless shooting at Daleway Park in Lynnwood shares about their Dad, Carl Bridgmon.
Bridgmon was tragically killed on April 5 after the vehicle he was sitting in was shot by unknown suspects who were in a confrontation with other individuals, also unknown to Bridgmon.
“Our family is in complete shock. Thank you for the community’s concern for our Dad, Carl Bridgmon, he was 70-years-old and a Lynnwood resident,” said the Bridgmon family.
“Our Dad loved to go to that park and sit and have his coffee several times a week,” said his daughter Courtney Teno. We are devastated and would really appreciate privacy as we process this over the next few days and weeks.”
Carl leaves behind two daughters, their significant others, two sisters, and many other loved ones and friends. “Carl never met a person he didn’t talk to or try to make friends with,” Teno said.
Author: Kienan Briscoe
One Response
I thought I read carefully, but did not see what happened to the back seat rifle shooter. Can one infer he was the tipster to get the investigation closed and got off?! It could be a dangerous summer when the criminals are this brazen, even over a low dollar legal commodity, while they live with their parents playing Breaking Bad.