Man shot in the chest found dead inside crashed car in Kennewick

Kennewick police found a driver hit by gunfire dead inside a crashed car Saturday night.

The death is being investigated as the 15th homicide of the year in Benton County, Wash., with about half of them in Kennewick.

Gunfire was reported at 9:15 p.m. in the 1100 block of West 5th Avenue, according to police reports.

Officers arrived to find two cars that had crashed, with a man dead inside one of them.

Police could see that the car had been hit by gunfire and it was later discovered that the man who died also had been shot in the chest. He was sitting in the driver’s seat, according to dispatch.

Additional information, including the age of the person who died, was not made public Sunday.

It was the third shooting in Kennewick this weekend.

A teen was shot early Friday evening in a drive-by on Columbia Center Boulevard across from the mall near Shari’s Cafe and Pies and Men’s Warehouse.

His wound did not appear to be life-threatening, according to police.

Adrian Cole, 20, was arrested later that night at a home on the 1100 block of South Olympia Place in Kennewick and was booked into the Benton County jail on suspicion of drive by shooting.

Then, about 1:15 a.m. Saturday, Kennewick police reported cars had been hit by bullets on the 1500 block of South Olympia Street, not far from where Cole was arrested.

The 14 homicides confirmed so far this year, which do not include vehicular homicides, are a record, beating the record last year of 10 homicides.