A 39-year-old man who is under guard at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center after being shot by Federal Way police officers on Monday has been criminally charged in connection with a string of failed carjackings that played out during afternoon rush hour, according to King County prosecutors.
Jason Miller-Brown was booked in absentia into the King County Jail on Tuesday evening while he remains at Harborview, said a spokesperson for Auburn police, which is one of seven South King County police agencies that belong to the Valley Independent Investigative Team responsible for investigating shootings by police officers.
Miller-Brown was charged Tuesday with first-degree robbery, attempted first-degree robbery and first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm, with bail set at $500,000, court records show.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Miller-Brown was in satisfactory condition, said Susan Gregg, a Harborview spokesperson.
Miller-Brown’s city of residence is unknown, though charging papers note he has 25 aliases and has warrants for his arrest in Grays Harbor County, where he is charged with a hate crime, theft, retail theft, burglary and trafficking in stolen property — crimes allegedly committed between November 2019 and April 2020.
In the King County case, police are still identifying additional victims, and prosecutors anticipate filing more charges, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Jennifer Phillips wrote in charging papers.
Court records do not yet indicate which attorney is representing Miller-Brown.
Just after 3:20 p.m. Monday, a 911 caller reported that a man had just attempted to steal his car at gunpoint at the Elephant Car Wash in the 31000 block of Pacific Highway South, then ran away, the charges say.
Police later learned that the caller was the second victim and the same man had first tried to steal a car belonging to a Lyft driver, who was cleaning his car at the carwash after finishing work for the day. The man pulled a gun from his waistband and ordered the Lyft driver to walk away, which he did, with his keys in his pocket, say charging papers. The man rifled around in the driver’s car, stealing a cellphone.
After the first 911 call, several witnesses called 911 and said an armed man was pointing a gun at people as he ran south, prompting a large police response. As the man reached South 320th Street, he turned east, then ran across 320th as officers attempted to contact him, say the charges. At least one police sergeant notified dispatchers over his radio that the man had pointed a gun at officers and was attempting to carjack another person.
After crossing South 320th Street, the man ran to a green Toyota Camry that was stopped in traffic, pointed the gun at the driver and pulled him from the car, say charging papers. After the driver moved to the back of his car, several police officers fired at the man, who threw his handgun into the road’s median as he fell to the ground, according to the charges, which note traffic cameras captured footage of the shooting.
Police have so far identified at least three other potential victims, the charges say.
One of them appears to be a driver whose car was parked outside a Panera Bread cafe, in the 2100 block of South 320th Street, whom the man also attempted to carjack before running to the Camry, according to a news release Tuesday from the Valley Independent Investigative Team.