U.S. sailor charged with murder in Seattle shooting

An active-duty member of the U.S. navy is accused of shooting three strangers last month after a night out in Pioneer Square, killing one man and injuring two other people, according to King County prosecutors.

Seattle police detectives arrested Victor Marshall, 23, on Monday at Naval Base Kitsap in Bremerton, Washington, and he was charged Thursday with second-degree murder and two counts of first-degree assault. Each charge also includes a firearm enhancement, which means that if convicted, Marshall faces a standard range sentence of 41 to 53 years in prison.

He remains jailed in lieu of $4-million US bail.

Marshall is accused of shooting Stuart Roberts II, 25, four times early Feb. 25, killing him. He’s also charged with shooting another man and a woman, both 25, who survived.

“The two surviving victims were engaged in an argument among themselves when they were shot by the defendant,” senior deputy prosecutor Raymond Lee wrote in charging papers. Based on witness interviews, “there does not appear to be a clear explanation why the defendant felt the need to shoot three separate strangers in a public place.”

Lee noted in charges filed against Marshall that police haven’t recovered the gun used in the shooting and that as an active-duty military service member, Marshall presumably has had weapons training and access to additional guns.

Marshall is a sailor who arrived at the Bremerton naval base in late 2022 and was assigned to its traffic and parking office, performing administrative duties, a spokesperson for Naval Base Kitsap confirmed in a Friday email.

Police responded to a parking lot next to the OHM nightclub just before 2 a.m. Feb. 25, where they located the female victim, say the charges. Officers found her injured boyfriend on the sidewalk outside the club.

Dispatchers notified officers at the scene that Roberts had shown up at Virginia Mason Medical Center with gunshot wounds, according to the charges. Officers who responded to the hospital could see blood and a handgun lying on the floor of the car that took him there, the charges say.

Roberts was transported to Harborview Medical Center, where he died.

Using surveillance video from the club, police determined Marshall and a group of friends arrived in three vehicles that all parked in the lot a little after 10 p.m. the previous evening before they went inside OHM together, according to the charges.

After leaving the club, Marshall retrieved a gun he’d left inside his friend’s car and sat on the trunk, the charges say. The man and woman began arguing about their relationship, and Roberts and a female friend were trying to de-escalate the situation when Marshall started shooting, charging papers say.

Following Marshall’s arrest, detectives photographed distinctive tattoos on his hand and neck that appear to match those seen on the gunman in footage of the shooting, according to the charges.

Marshall is one of six people charged with murder in the past week and a half for five homicides committed in Seattle, four of them this year. Two suspects, ages 22 and 17, were also charged with murder for their alleged involvement in a gang gunfight in West Seattle in July.

Seattle police have so far investigated 10 homicides in 2024. Seattle ended 2023 with 69 homicides, a number that had not been reached since 1994.