Forks police seek pair in wake of weekend shooting

FORKS — Police are looking for two people they suspect in the shooting of a third person last weekend.

Forks Police Chief Mike Powell said Wednesday that Joanna M. Watkins, 27, and Kenneth Jason Ruiz, 28, both of Forks, are at large, and police have probable cause to arrest them based on the shooting and marijuana found growing at their apartment during a search.

The victim, 18-year-old Douglas White of Forks, was shot in the foot early Saturday morning while at an apartment on Wood Street, Powell said.

White told officers the shooting was accidental, but they don’t know for sure.

“He says it was an accident,” Powell said Wednesday. “Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t.

“It’s reckless endangerment at the very least.”

Shot at an apartment

Powell said White was “uncooperative” in their investigation, saying only that he was shot at an apartment.

Police don’t know what prompted the shooting.

The investigation led to the Wood Street apartment, occupied by Watkins and Ruiz, where police armed with a warrant found about a dozen small but mature marijuana plants growing inside a dark room, Powell said.

Inside the room was a grow light, a fan and a digital thermometer, and the room’s windows were blacked out with blankets and blinds, Powell said.

No one was home when they served the warrant.

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