Matthew Lanske was out with friends in Belltown when he took three bullets after stepping into an armed robbery. He was 21 at the time. His sister, Rebecca Garberding, said two struck his stomach while the third shattered his pelvis and struck a major artery. The group had finished dinner on Sept. 6 and witnessed an illegal street takeover, his family said, before a man and two women tried to rob his friend at gunpoint near Clay and Denny streets.
That friend, Isaac Elijah Rios, was 20 and was shot as well. Two others stayed with him and called 911 while Lanske ran about a block looking for help. Rios reached a hospital alive but did not survive. “My brother had seen that, so he ran over to try to assist and get control of the gun, not only for his friend, but for the whole community and ended up getting hurt,” Garberding told KOMO.
Their mother, Shanda Barney, said her son walked two blocks bleeding before anyone reached him. Barney said her son tried a 7-Eleven and was turned away. She recounted him telling her the doors were locked and that he begged to be let in, believing he was about to die. Around the same time, she said, people nearby were filming him rather than stepping in.
He ended up saving himself
Garberding said she understands fear kept some people back, though she thinks someone could have dialed 911 or walked him somewhere safe. Lanske eventually sat down and texted 911 himself, along with his girlfriend. Officers found him and he went into emergency surgery. He spent two days on life support, unable to speak, and had a second operation to reconnect his intestines.
He learned Rios had died only after waking up. “He wanted to save his friend so bad, and he woke up to so many changes,” his sister Brooklynne Lanske said. Washington imposes no general legal duty on bystanders to help a stranger in distress. Only Minnesota, Rhode Island and Vermont require reasonable assistance and attach penalties for failing to give it.
What Washington does have is RCW 4.24.300, which shields anyone who renders emergency care in good faith from civil damages, short of gross negligence or willful misconduct. Calling 911 falls within that protection. Nobody has been charged, and prosecutors have not indicated what counts they would bring. State law does carry a specific route for a death during a robbery.
Under RCW 9A.32.030, a killing that happens while committing a first or second degree robbery, or while fleeing one, counts as murder in the first degree even without any intent to kill. The provision reaches every participant in the robbery, not only whoever pulled the trigger. That offense is a class A felony, and the sentencing statute for it provides for life imprisonment.
Rios had been planning his upcoming birthday for Oct. 10. He graduated from Lake Stevens High School in 2024, played football there, and worked as an electrician at Boeing. His aunt, Beneta Lal, wrote on a fundraising page that he could fix nearly anything with an engine and skied double black diamond runs.
Both families are asking anyone with information or video to contact police. Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. “Somehow, someone out there knows something,” Garberding said. The report gave no indication that 7-Eleven was contacted about the family’s account, and the company has not publicly responded to it.
Published: Sep 15, 2026 02:35 pm