West Hill woman charged with assault in shooting of landlord

A 51-year-old resident of a West Hill group home was charged Wednesday with assault and arson in a shooting Nov. 24 that wounded her landlord.

Arraignment for Ayanna A. Shamari is Dec. 15 at the county courthouse in downtown Seattle. She is being held on $2 million bail.

She was charged with first-degree assault and first-degree arson.

Shamari rents a single room at a house on South 117th Street, with access to a laundry room, living rooms, bathroom and kitchen.

The shooting occurred in the home’s kitchen, in what sheriff’s detectives say was an unprovoked attack, while the home’s owner was cooking a Thanksgiving Day meal.

According to charging documents, Shamari had become argumentative with the landlord and other renters in the home in recent weeks.

Shamari walked into the kitchen with a handgun and spoke little that could be understood by the landlord or another person in the room. She fired a round that grazed the head of the landlord, a 59-year-old woman.

The two struggled and two more rounds were fired. One hit the refrigerator and the second hit the landlord in the abdomen.

The man in the kitchen fled through a sliding-glass door, cutting himself on the way out, after Shamari pointed the gun at him. She fired but missed.

Shamari then fled the house. Investigators found a fire going in her room, which was set in two places.

Shamari stayed in the University District after the shooting with a friend, who facilitated her surrender at about 11:45 a.m. Nov. 26. She was then turned over to detectives with the King County Sheriff’s Office.

The landlord was taken to Harborview Medical Center, where she under went surgery. She survived.