Mount Vernon shooting suspect charged with additional count of attempted murder

MOUNT VERNON – The 44-year-old man charged with attempted murder for allegedly shooting Mount Vernon police officer Mike “Mick” McClaughry was charged Thursday with an additional count of attempted murder.

Ernesto Rivas pleaded not guilty in Skagit County Superior Court to the added first-degree attempted murder charge for the shooting of a man in the neck in the area of North LaVenture Road in Mount Vernon on Dec. 15, court documents state.

McClaughry was responding to that shooting when he was reportedly shot in the head by Rivas outside Rivas’ residence.

Austin Gonzales, 16, pleaded not guilty Jan. 26 for attempted murder in the first degree for the first shooting.

A third person, 15-year-old Roberto Lopez Jr., pleaded guilty Jan. 23 to second-degree assault with a deadly weapon in connection with the same shooting.

Skagit County deputy prosecutor Rosemary Kaholokula said in court in January that prosecutors have reason to believe Rivas supplied the gun Gonzales used in the first shooting.

The investigation of the Dec. 15 shootings is ongoing. In court Thursday, prosecutors requested DNA samples from Gonzales and Rivas.

A no-contact order for Rivas and his fiancee was denied Thursday by Skagit County Superior Court Judge Brian Stiles.

Koholokula said she requested the no-contact order because of the fiancee potential involvement in Rivas’ case. The fiancie allegedly was at Rivas’ residence the night of the shootings.

Rivas’ trial date is set for March 20.

After spending about two months at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle recovering from a gunshot wound to the head, McClaughry was released from the hospital and arrived back in Mount Vernon on Tuesday.