Tulalip man gets 17-year federal prison sentence for 2022 shooting
Published 2:28 pm Monday, September 21, 2026
EVERETT — A Tulalip man will spend 17 years in federal prison after admitting to killing another man at his home in 2022.
Abdul Qasim Ray Zahir, 40, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and using a firearm in a crime of violence before he was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Seattle on Friday, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington.
Zahir was accused of killing a friend who had been helping him work on a car at his home on Totem Beach Road on the Tulalip Reservation on May 28, 2022, The Daily Herald previously reported.
Investigators from the FBI and the Tulalip Police Department said Zahir shot Francisco Barraso-Ortega, 60, multiple times following an argument about noise from a tool being used during the auto repairs, according to the release. The victim was unarmed.
“This was a completely senseless crime,” said Charles Neil Floyd, first assistant U.S. Attorney in a press release. “Mr. Zahir used a homemade firearm to shoot the victim in the back of the head, the heart and shoulder during nothing more than a verbal altercation.”
Zahir was previously accused of shooting a gun during a robbery at a Costco warehouse, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. He had also received a 10-year federal prison sentence for drug trafficking.
The convictions prevented Zahir from owning a gun, but prosecutors said four, self-manufactured ghost guns were found at his home during the investigation, according to the release.
Zahir was initially charged with second-degree murder, using a firearm during a crime of violence, unlawful possession of a firearm and unlawful possession of ammunition after a federal grand jury indicted him in 2023, The Daily Herald reported at the time.
As part of a plea agreement, Zahir also pleaded guilty to unrelated charges for attempted robbery, illegal possession of a firearm and possession of a stolen vehicle out of King County, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
It’s expected that his sentence on those charges will run concurrent to his federal prison term, according to the release.
Ian Davis-Leonard: 425-339-3097; ian.davis-leonard@heraldnet.com
