On the morning of April 15, 2024, 30-year-old Zachariah Janusiewicz of Everson was shot in a wooded area near an encampment in north Bellingham after multiple 911 calls reported gunfire just after 3 a.m. Responding officers found people pushing Janusiewicz in a shopping cart with obvious gunshot wounds to his upper body. He was taken to St. Joseph Medical Center and later died; the Whatcom County Medical Examiner ruled the cause a perforating gunshot wound to the torso and classified the death as a homicide.

Police say two people identified through mobile phone records and witness accounts — Coleen L. Clark, then 35, and her partner Gale R. Jefferson, then 33 — had been moving through the encampment earlier that night, accusing residents of stealing money and tying up one man with a zip tie. She reportedly tripped during the chase and the weapon discharged one round that struck Janusiewicz. He was placed in a shopping cart and taken for help but did not survive.

Has anyone with knowledge of the encampment or that area on April 15 come forward with information about what they saw that night?