Man charged in June 23 drive-by shooting that paralyzed 45-year-old driver in NE Tacoma

Pierce County prosecutors have charged a 20-year-old Federal Way man with first-degree assault and drive-by shooting, following a June 23 incident in Northeast Tacoma that left a 45-year-old man paralyzed from the chest down.

Tacoma police detectives arrested Mason Zavier Taylor Wednesday. He was arraigned Thursday in Pierce County Superior Court, and entered a plea of not guilty. A second suspect, a 19-year-old man, was also booked into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of involvement in the shooting incident, but no charges had been filed against him as of Thursday evening.

The victim told police his assailants were angry at him for driving too slowly, according to charging papers. He was heading up Norpoint Way from Marine View Drive, hauling cases of wine and beer to a catering event at a restaurant. He drove his van carefully to protect the cargo, he explained.

Charging papers describe what happened next. The man was in the right lane when an SUV with two men inside pulled up next to him. The passenger in the other vehicle started shouting at him for driving too slowly, flipped him off, and added profane threats to hurt the man and his family.

The man told police he yelled back, sped up, pulled ahead of the SUV and brake-checked it. He continued up the hill, and the driver of the SUV tried to get around him.

At the top of the hill, the man was stopped in the left lane when he felt like he’d been rear-ended. In a separate interview with police, the 19-year-old said that Taylor pulled behind the man’s van and fired two shots, court records state.

Both rounds struck the man. One hit his spinal cord. The victim did not know he had been shot at, but he called 911 to report that he couldn’t feel his legs, according to Tacoma Police spokesperson Wendy Haddow. Emergency medical technicians from the Tacoma Fire Department arrived at the scene, realized that the victim had been shot, and called police, who started investigating.

Witness interviews, surveillance video and related records led detectives to an apartment in Federal Way, where they spotted the SUV and linked it to Taylor. He was arrested along with the 19-year-old.

In interviews with police, the two men gave a different account of the incident. They said the man’s van swerved into their lane as they drove up Norpoint Way, nearly causing an accident. They said the man pulled up to them, swore at them, and claimed he “had something for them.” Taylor told police the man pulled a gun, and might have had another in his lap. The 19-year-old passenger told police he could not see anything in the victim’s hands, according to court records.

Taylor denied shooting at the van. He said four or five other people were riding with him in the SUV, and they could have fired the shots. He didn’t know who did.

His 19-year-old companion said the opposite: “Mason acted on it and fired the bullet,” he told police. Police also interviewed two witnesses who were in another car stopped at the intersection. They said they saw the driver of the SUV hold a gun out the window and shoot at the van.

Superior Court Commissioner Craig Adams set Taylor’s bail at $50,000, scheduling an initial trial date of Aug. 17.