A 20-year-old Auburn man was charged Wednesday with second-degree murder in the fatal shooting last Sunday of a Tacoma man in a Fairwood apartment complex.

The defendant, Samuel M. Piatnitsky, is being held on $1 million bail at the jail at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent. He also was charged with first-degree assault.

Also charged is a 20-year-old Renton man, Jason M. Young, who is also jailed on $1 million bail. He is charged with first-degree rendering criminal assistance.

Both men will be arraigned Nov. 4 at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center .

The King County Medical Examiner’s Office has ruled the death of the man, Shawn Jones, a homicide.

A 21-year-old Renton man who was also hit by gunfire was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle early Sunday morning in serious condition.

According to charging papers, deputies with the King County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched at about 3:40 a.m. Sunday to an apartment complex in the 13900 block of Southeast 173rd Place.

A fight had broken out at a party in an apartment, according to the documents. Two of the men involved in the fight fled, but returned.

According to witnesses, a man named “Sam” came out of the bushes, holding a shotgun, with a man named “Jason” behind him. According to court documents, “Sam” chambered a round in the pump-action shotgun and fired. Jones then grabbed the shotgun and wrestled with Piatnitsky.

According to prosecutors, Young pulled Jones off of Piatnitsky, who fired three more rounds, killing Jones and wounding the Renton man, Jeff Manchester.

Young and Piatnitsky fled, but were tracked to Young’s nearby house, where they were arrested. Piatnitsky was hiding downstairs in the house.

According to prosecutors, Piatnitsky confessed to shooting Jones. He told deputies that someone had broken a beer bottle over his head. He said he and Young then went to a nearby residence to get a stolen shotgun. He said when he returned to the apartment, Jones tackled him and they fell to the ground.

After firing about four shots, he said he and Young fled. Prosecutors charge that Piatnitsky fired at point-blank range as Jones tried to crawl away from him.

At Young’s house, he told deputies he took off his pants and then got into bed to pretend that he was asleep.

Dean A. Radford, editor, can be reached at 425-255-3483, ext.5050, or at dean.radford@rentonreporter.com.