3 charged in night of violence that ended in death of deputy

They started their night at a bar, leaving only long enough to kill a man they suspected stole from friends, before they returned and bragged about the slaying, according to court papers.

Raymond O. Porter and Sergio Reyes-Brooks then went to a White Center house party, where Reyes-Brooks allegedly beat another man before someone else shot him twice in the head. The violence stopped only after Porter killed King County sheriff's Deputy Steve Cox, then committed suicide, according to King County Superior Court charging documents filed Wednesday.

In addition to Reyes-Brooks, 26, two others — Glenn Lagdaan, 32, and Ashley Huish, 26 — suspected in the attack on the man outside the house party were charged Wednesday.

The court documents offer new details about the violence late Friday and early Saturday that began with the killing of Dominique McCray in SeaTac and ended with the fatal shooting of Cox.

Shortly after arriving at the party, in the 10400 block of 12th Avenue Southwest, Reyes-Brooks and others attacked a motorist because he had hit a car belonging to Reyes-Brooks' girlfriend. The man, identified as Tim Stein, was lost in the fog when he struck the sport-utility vehicle, court papers said.

Stein, who was a stranger to his attackers, was beaten and shot twice in the head — the bullets only grazed him, court papers said. Neighbors of the White Center home called police when they saw the assault on Stein. Cox and several deputies arrived and found the injured man trying to get into his truck, court papers said.

Stein has since been released from the hospital.

In an attempt to figure out who was responsible for Stein's attack, Cox interviewed partygoers one by one. Cox was just about to talk to Porter when the 23-year-old West Seattle man pulled out a gun and shot him in the head, court papers said. In response, two deputies shot Porter in the chest and thigh. Porter then took his own life by shooting himself in the head, according to the sheriff's office.

Cox, 46, died hours later at a Seattle hospital. Cox was a 10-year law-enforcement veteran and beloved deputy who had patrolled White Center — the high-crime neighborhood near where he grew up — for the past three years. He took cleaning up White Center seriously enough to become president of a neighborhood council and was often spotted at restaurants and stores with his wife and their newly adopted year-old son.

McCray, 23, the first victim, was a convicted felon living in Seattle. Though authorities say he was in a gang, his relatives deny it.

On Wednesday, his sister, Contessa Henderson, said Porter and Reyes-Brooks were wrong to think that McCray had stolen money or drugs from people they knew.

"My brother is gone and he's never coming back," Henderson said, adding that she didn't know Porter or Reyes-Brooks. "He left behind his daughter who will be 5 on Thursday [today]."

Since the deaths of Porter and Cox, Reyes-Brooks has been charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of McCray and with unlawful firearm possession. Like Porter, he was recently released from prison and under the supervision of the state Department of Corrections.

In the motorist's beating, Lagdaan was charged with assault and unlawful firearm possession; Huish was charged with rendering criminal assistance. Lagdaan is believed to have shot Stein, court papers said.

Cox is the third King County law-enforcement officer since August whose death has been blamed on someone under DOC supervision. On Monday, Gov. Christine Gregoire ordered the agency to review how it supervised all three convicts.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com