EWU football player one of two arrested in Palomino Club fatal shooting

Mon., Jan. 25, 2016

By Rachel Alexander rachela@spokesman.com (509) 459-5406

Spokane police have arrested an Eastern Washington University football player and another man in connection with a fatal shooting last week outside The Palomino Club.

LaShawn Jameison, 21, and Kwame Bates, 26, face drive-by shooting charges related to the death of EWU student Eduardo Villagomez, police spokeswoman Teresa Fuller said Monday. The men were arrested Friday, according to jail records. Police do not believe the men shot Villagomez.

Villagomez, a junior transfer student, died after he was shot about 2 a.m. Jan. 18. Wendy Jordan, general manager of The Palomino, said last week the venue was rented by a promoter for a party honoring Martin Luther King Jr. and had just closed when the shooting occurred.

Jameison, was born in Stockton, California. He played college football at Southern Oregon University, where he redshirted in 2012 and played three games the following season. EWU dismissed Jameison from the team on Monday. He was on the EWU roster as a cornerback in 2015 but did not play.

According to court documents, surveillance footage from the club shows two men crouching behind a car in the parking lot. A sedan pulls into the parking lot and an occupant fires shots at the two men crouching behind the car – presumably Bates and Jameison – both of whom return fire.

The video shows Villagomez, a bystander, was shot by the man who initiated the shooting, court documents say. Villagomez fell to the ground after he was shot and was run over by a red Mustang as it left the area.

Bates turned himself in to Spokane police last week and identified Jameison as the man who was with him. He told investigators the man who initiated the shooting approached him outside the club as he was leaving and started yelling at him, then pulled a gun and began shooting. Bates said he didn’t know anyone had died in the shooting for several days.

Both men are being held in jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.

Staff writers Jim Allen and Eli Francovich contributed to this report.