Two teens charged as adults in connection with drug-related shooting in Hillyard

Two teens are facing adult felony charges stemming from a Hillyard shooting last week over a duffel bag full of marijuana.

Police believe the incident was drug-related and quickly turned violent when a group of teens wielding blunt weapons attempted to steal hundreds of dollars of marijuana from an armed drug dealer.

Steven R. Smethurst, 33, is accused of shooting at the teens as they fled. He is charged with multiple counts of assault with a firearm. One teen was hit in the thigh and treated at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center.

Court documents say the two teen boys were actors in what police describe as a “blitzkrieg home invasion attack” against Smethurst.

Investigators accuse the 33-year-old of trying to sell marijuana to the teen boys along with a teen girl out of his home in the 4200 block of East Longfellow Avenure.

But he was blindsided when another group of teen boys barged in at around 11 p.m. and demanded the drugs, court records say. At one point, one of the boys hit Smethurst and a woman at the home in the head with a bat.

Police wrote in the teen’s charging documents that Smethurst admitted to following the group out of his home with a gun in his hand, according to court documents. Surveillance video showed him shooting at the group as they got into the car, hitting one of them four times.

Smethurst told detectives he bought the duffel bag full of marijuana earlier in the day and was trying to sell it.

In an attempt to sort through the stories, police interviewed seven people involved in the drug deal.

Court documents allege that one of the boys charged, and the teen girl who has not been charged, served as a cover to determine how much marijuana Smethurst was carrying.

Meanwhile, police believe, the other teen boys were waiting nearby to ambush him.

According to court records, a 14-year-old is accused of hitting the two with the bat. The 17-year-old who was shot was armed with a large stick but did not hit anyone. Those two teens have not been charged.