The man accused of killing two men and wounding two others at a Lake Union shipyard could face the death penalty. King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng today filed two counts of aggravated murder and two counts of attempted murder in the Nov. 3 shooting.
Aggravated murder is punishable by either life in prison or death.
Maleng called the shooting a classic case of workplace violence and said its shocking nature met at least the initial test for a capital punishment case. He also said the evidence currently suggests Cruz acted alone. Cruz worked at the Northlake Shipyard office in 1998 but left the company because he said he was injured in a forklift accident. On a November morning, a gunman dressed in camouflage walked into the bookkeeper's office and shot and killed employees Peter Giles and Russell James Brisendine. Two other men, a recently hired clerk and a fisherman, were wounded but survived the attack.