Gunman in fatal shooting faces murder charge

Victim at wrong motel door when he was shot from inside room

By John Hanron

A Seattle man is in jail and facing murder charges after he fired a handgun through his Twisp motel doorway, killing another man who was mistakenly trying to open the wrong door.

Thomas Pfaeffle, 49, of Black Diamond, Wash., was pronounced dead at Mid-Valley Hospital in Omak two hours after the shooting.

The suspected gunman, Kino Michael Gomez, 57, of Seattle, was arrested and faces a murder charge.

According to Twisp Police Chief Rick Balam, Pfaeffle and his wife were checking in to the Blue Spruce Motel in Twisp at about 10:40 p.m. Friday (July 17) and inadvertently tried to open the wrong door.

Two shots came through the doorway, fired from inside the room, one of them hitting Pfaeffle in the torso. It was unclear whether the door was open at the time. There were no obvious bullet holes coming all the way through the door, but one going into the hinge-side jamb.

Aero Methow Rescue Service, the valley’s ambulance service, was dispatched at 10:45 p.m. but was instructed to remain at their quarters just up the street until the scene was deemed safe.

“We couldn’t get to the shooting victim because he was in the line of fire,” said Balam. Police cordoned off the area. He said it was not clear if the shooter inside the room was finished or was waiting to discharge his weapon at anyone else coming into range.

The ambulance was given the OK to approach the staging area at the fuel station next door at 10:59 p.m. and, as about eight officers lined up to provide cover for the rescuers, the paramedics were able to make contact with Pfaeffle at 11:07 p.m. and had him en route to the hospital at 11:11 p.m., according to Aero Methow director and paramedic Cindy Button. The patient arrived at Mid-Valley Hospital in Omak – 38 miles away – at 11:46 p.m., Button said.

Early stories in The Seattle Times and the Wenatchee World contained inaccurate claims that it took the ambulance two hours to reach the patient.

After Pfaeffle and his wife – who was uninjured – were transported to the hospital, police were able to make telephone contact with the suspected gunman inside the hotel room, and he agreed to come out.

Gomez, an engineer for King County for the past 18 years, was charged Monday (July 20) with Second Degree Murder and Reckless Endangerment, the latter charge stemming from a third shot allegedly fired through the wall of his room that sprayed debris on another guest who was lying in bed. Gomez was being held in the Okanogan County Jail on $100,000 bond.

Balam said Gomez did not seem impaired in any way upon his arrest. He said police believe three shots were fired, and that three bullet shells and two slugs were recovered at the scene.

Omak attorney Michael Haas, of Haas, MacDougal and Prince, said Gomez will plead not guilty and will request a jury trial.

“This is just a horrible accident and nothing more,” he said Tuesday (July 21). “Our client was fearful that his room was being invaded. [The sound] pulled him out of a sound sleep and he fired.”
Gomez reportedly had two .40-caliber Glock handguns with him at the time of his arrest.

Haas said Gomez was in town “vacationing and traveling through the area with some friends.”

The victim was a respected sound engineer who owned The Tank, a recording studio in Black Diamond and who had worked with many famous musical acts including B.B. King, Nirvana, Queensryche, Aerosmith and the Black Crowes.

He and his wife were in the Methow celebrating a friend’s birthday at Sun Mountain Lodge. The couple have two young children.

“It’s totally out of line,” said Balam of the shooting. “Just a disregard for human life.”
 

Gomez’s arraignment is set for July 30.

Photo by John Hanron

A member of the defense team gathers evidence at Room 7 of the Blue Spruce Motel Thursday (July 23). An apparent bullet hole is visible on the left side of the photo.

revised 7/23