Docs in Redmond shooting: 'My best friend shot a girl ... he was drunk'

A Redmond man is in jail and accused of manslaughter after police said he fired a handgun at a party in the Education Hill neighborhood early Sunday and sent a bullet through a wall that fatally struck a woman on the other side.

Redmond police received a call at about 3:30 a.m. from someone at or near the party who told them, “My best friend shot a girl in the house. He was drunk,” according to court documents.

Police said a party was going on and that Cornelius John De Jong IV had brought along his .40 caliber Smith and Wesson.

“We believe he was handling a handgun, a semi-automatic handgun, when it went off,” Redmond Police Department spokesman Jim Bove said.

A detective said De Jong was asked to remove the magazine from the weapon at the party. He pulled back the slide and then pointed the weapon at a wall as he pulled the trigger, to show it was empty. According to court documents, De Jong didn’t know there was still a bullet in the chamber.

The gun fired, the bullet went through the wall and fatally struck 20-year-old Claire E. Thompson, according to charging documents.

“From her perspective, it was the wrong place at the wrong time,” Bove said.

KIRO 7’s Chris Legeros stopped by a home in Sammamish linked to Thompson’s name. A man there didn’t want to talk.

A friend on Facebook posted a photo of Claire Ellen Thompson with the words, “rest in peace.” The message also said, “you will live through all of us each and every day. We love and miss you.”

Kermit Eng lives just across the street from where the shooting happened and said the house has frequently been a problem with parties and a lot of noise. He said he’s glad Redmond police have arrested the man they think is responsible for a young woman’s death.

“I know there’s been a lot of trouble across the street,” he said.

Asked if the arrest made him feel better, Eng said, “Yeah. A lot safer, too.”

Officials told KIRO 7 that De Jong has been arrested for some alcohol and traffic offenses, but KIRO 7 was unable to find a record of any felonies in his past.