Homicide suspect arrested after standoff

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Three days after a man was fatally shot while riding in his nephew's car in Yakima, authorities arrested the person they believe pulled the trigger.

The 24-year-old Yakima man surrendered Tuesday afternoon at a duplex in the 600 block of West Logan Avenue after a 30-minute standoff, Yakima police  Lt. Mike Merryman said.

He is the primary suspect in Saturday's fatal shooting of David R. Duarte, 40, of Yakima. Police have not released the suspect's name, but Yakima County jail records show Tomas
Villegas was booked Tuesday on a first-degree murder charge.

"It went off without a hitch," said Merryman, as SWAT officers cleared the scene Tuesday afternoon. "We were sitting on this for a while. We wanted to wait until school got out and there weren't any kids in the street."

The duplex sits across South Sixth Avenue from Hoover Elementary School.

Duarte was riding in his 16-year-old nephew's car shortly before midnight Saturday near 16th and Washington avenues when a large white vehicle pulled up alongside them, authorities said. Somebody inside fired several shots, hitting Duarte in the head and chest.

The nephew, who has not been identified, pulled into a nearby parking lot and called police. Duarte was dead by the time officers arrived.

He was the sixth homicide victim in Yakima County this year and the fourth in the city of Yakima. Arrests have been made in all four Yakima homicides.

After Tuesday's arrest -- and as officers served a search warrant on the second duplex unit -- several dozen neighbors gathered in small groups around the yellow caution tape to talk about the Yakima Valley's gang problem.

Authorities have said Duarte was probably not involved in gangs, but his nephew is.

"I don't know what they're going to do about all this garbage," said Deryl Woody, who has lived for 40 years in a house around the block from the scene of Tuesday's arrest.

“Maybe (the city) ought to stop worrying about the public art and brick sidewalks and start taking care of this (s---) that’s going on. There’s priorities, and there’s priorities.”

• Melissa Sánchez can be reached at 509-577-7675 or msanchez@yakimaherald.com.