Article I wrote for the Tri-City Herald newspaper.

1. Tri-City Herald: Local http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/local/v-printer/story/8838736p-87...
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After-hours hotel party ends in shooting (w/ video)
This story was published Sunday, April 29th, 2007
By Nathan Isaacs, Herald staff writer
An after-hours party in Kennewick involving rappers and hip-hop artists early Saturday ended in gunfire, injuring a Las
Vegas man and landing nine Seattle men in jail.
Kennewick police said the party moved to the Hilton Garden Inn in west Kennewick after a rap concert at Club
Paradise in Richland. All the jailed men told police they were rappers and hip hop artists in town to attend or perform in
a concert at the club, which was headlined by acclaimed rapper Young Buck and the rap group G-Unit.
Police could not say Saturday whether Young Buck or members of G-Unit were involved in the shooting. The group was
expected to perform Saturday night in Yakima.
Police were trying to determine Saturday who did the shooting in the hotel parking lot, and what led to it. One report
under investigation was that a fight erupted between members of G-Unit and rival rappers. During the fight, a $100,000
black Mercedes was damaged.
At least six shots were fired by at least two weapons, said Kennewick Sgt. Scott Child. One of bullets went through a
window to the hotel's exercise room, continued across the room, through a wall and across a hall where it wedged in
the outside wall of a hotel room.
"We had no clue we were that close to what was happening," said Shelly Dietzen of Yakima. "We're here for a baseball
tournament. We didn't realize we would be in jeopardy."
She was staying in the room with Pam Berndt, also of Yakima. The two mothers were with their 14-year-old sons, in
town to play in a baseball tournament in Pasco.
"You don't expect this type of violence to hit so close to home, and when it does, it makes you really nervous," Berndt
said.
Both women were awakened sometime after 2 a.m. by shouting, people running down hallways and doors being
slammed, they said. Shots were fired just as they began to call the hotel desk.
Berndt said she initially thought the noise was champagne corks being popped, and quickly realized her mistake. The
women called the front desk and 911, and were told police were on their way and to stay in their room.
Police were called to the hotel at 2:54 a.m. after first getting a 911 hang-up call. While officers were on the phone,
they heard gunshots in the background.
When police arrived, they found Robert Osound, 30, of Las Vegas, who was shot once in the left leg. The bullet then
passed into his right leg. He was taken to Lourdes Medical Center in Pasco where he was treated and expected to be
released late Saturday or today.
Witnesses told police that the people involved in the shooting had taken off in a white limousine and sports utility
vehicle.
Richland police stopped the two vehicles at the interchange of Highway 240 and Interstate 182. Child said 11 people
were detained, including one of the drivers who was armed with a gun. He said Richland police also reportedly saw
weapons being thrown from the vehicles.
Booked into the Benton County jail for failing to report a crime were Cedrein D. Johnson, 27; Raymel Jones, 28; Jareil
Vanga, 25; Camilo Saunz, 25; Adren Conley, 27; Ronald Banks Jr., 24; Leandre Conerly, 22; Donnie Adams, 26; and
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2. Tri-City Herald: Local http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/local/v-printer/story/8838736p-87...
William Fomby, 21. Other charges are expected to be filed as police complete their investigation, Child said.
Several weapons have been seized by police, said Detective Sgt. Randy Maynard. He would not comment on their
make or caliber, or whether any of the seized weapons were involved in the shooting. Child said at least two guns were
used.
Police recovered six bullet casings from the hotel crime scene and located each of the bullets. Two others went into
vehicles, including the Mercedes. Two bullets hit the side of the hotel, and the other bullet stopped outside Berndt's
and Dietzen's room.
Berndt said police knocked on their door about 7 a.m., asking if they could come into the room to search for the sixth
bullet. It was found in the outside wall, above the room numbers.
Berndt said they were awake when police arrived, and had been up since the shooting.
"I watched the time tick by on my clock," she said. "It just scares you."
Hotel management declined Saturday to talk about the shooting.
Child said the investigation is challenging because of the number of people involved and their unwillingness to
cooperate with detectives. Most are out-of-town residents who may have left the area, he said.
At one point, Maynard said, 28 people were detained by police. Child said two or even three times that many people
may have been at the hotel at the time of the shooting.
Nearly all of the department's detectives and other officers have been working on the investigation, Child said.
Richland and Pasco police, the Benton County Sheriff's Office, and the Washington State Patrol all helped in the
investigation.
At the hotel, Scotty Wilson, 14, of Yakima, also in town with his dad for the baseball tournaments, said he'd obtained
autographs earlier from some of the rappers.
He was taking pictures of the black Mercedes with the hopes, he said, of selling the images to Inside Edition.
Police have not said who owns the car. Visible inside the car was an envelope containing a $10,000 bail receipt from a
bail bond agent.
The receipt was tossed in the backseat and rested on top of a Tupac Shakur CD case, just a few feet from where
police found a bullet that crashed through the car.
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