Last of 2022 Longview-Kelso drive-by shooting suspects sentenced

LONGVIEW—A Longview man — linked to a string of 2022 drive-by shootings in Longview-Kelso — was the last of his three co-defendants sentenced in Cowlitz County Superior Court; he was sentenced to a decade in prison this week.

Andres Gabriel Gonzalez, 20, entered a plea deal in January for three counts of a drive-by shooting and one count of first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm. Court records show his 10-year sentence was the maximum term allowed by state law for his charges, based on his criminal history.

None of the 13 people located near the gunfire were injured, but a no-contact order was installed for all of them until Dec. 13, 2033. Many of the victims are Micronesian, court records show.

One of the victims told authorities the shootings were likely in retaliation to a break-in at a home associated with one of the suspects: Riki Aron Vasquez-Bracken, 22, of Longview.

Gonzalez, who has five prior felony convictions, along with his three co-defendants, admitted to carrying out three drive-by shootings between 1:13 a.m. and 2:13 a.m. Jan. 16. Two shootings occurred in Kelso and one in Longview.

Law enforcement found 9-millimeter and .40-caliber casings, bullets and bullet fragments from all three crime scenes, and after authorities searched a suspect’s Honda, a .40-caliber Smith and Wesson handgun was found, according to a police report.

The first shooting occurred at about 1:13 a.m., Jan. 16 when a person in the back passenger seat of the Honda fired at least three rounds into an occupied home in the 700 block of South Ninth Avenue in Kelso, where a Micronesian family was home, court records show.

About 30 minutes later, a red Dodge Challenger, occupied by four Micronesian people, noticed Mateo Emery Chavez, 20, of Kelso, driving the same Honda at Miller’s Market on Washington Way in Longview, the report states. One of the Honda occupants, Peterson Paul Kasa, 20, of Longview, walked up to the Challenger and “threw up his hands gesturing that he wanted to fight,” according to court records. The Honda pursued the Challenger, and while at the stoplight near Cowlitz Way and Long Avenue in Kelso, Gonzalez, a passenger, fired two rounds into the victim’s car at about 2 a.m.

Later, the Honda was reportedly seen firing shots at the home of the driver of the Challenger in the 4100 block of Ocean Beach Highway in Longview.

The report states authorities pursued the Honda as it sped across the Lewis and Clark Bridge into Rainier, and Chavez attempted to go the wrong way down U.S. Highway 30, until officers were able to block the vehicle to a stop.

Chavez, who has two prior felony convictions, pleaded guilty in October and was sentenced to 15 years in state prison and three years of community custody for count one.

Kasa pleaded guilty in March; he was sentenced to 13.5 years in prison and three years of community custody for one count of first-degree assault. He received about six years in prison for two drive-by shooting charges, and one year and five months of community custody.

Vasquez-Bracken pleaded guilty in July to two counts of first-degree assault and one count of drive-by shooting and was sentenced to 18 years.