A 25-year-old man who was driving a car that got shot up in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day in Oak Harbor was charged in a gun-related assault that was reported at about the same time as the shooting, according to court documents.

Detective Mike Bailey with the Oak Harbor Police Department said he’s still investigating the convoluted events in the hours following New Year’s Eve in downtown Oak Harbor, but hasn’t determined who shot the car or whether it was related to the alleged gun-pointing incident.

Prosecutors charged Shaunyae Allen in Island County Superior Court Jan. 5 with assault in the second degree with a deadly weapon and possession of a stolen firearm.

According to Bailey’s report, witnesses reported that the problems began after closing time at the Element Nightclub in downtown Oak Harbor. A group of women were leaving the bar and one said something rude to a man, later identified as Allen, who got upset and started hitting them, the report indicates. The women escaped and drove to an apartment at Crosby Avenue.

At the apartment, one of the women went outside to smoke and was again accosted by the same man, whom she identified as Allen. He allegedly pointed a handgun at her head and made a threatening remark, Bailey wrote.

A police officer responding to the incident found a man trying to climb a nearby fence in the dark. The officer tried to arrest the man at gunpoint, but the suspect ran away.

A minute before someone made the 911 call to report the gun-pointing incident, Allen’s girlfriend reported the car shooting.

According to Bailey’s report, Allen was initially reluctant to discuss the shooting, but later gave details in an interview.

Allen claimed that someone hit him over the head with a bottle while he was breaking up a fight at the Element Nightclub, so he drove home alone in the silver 2006 Pontiac G6. He said a man in a green Jeep SUV drove up next to him on NW Cathlamet and fired “multiple rounds” into the car, but no one was injured.

The police recovered bullets from the car and four empty shell casings on NW Cathlamet. The casings were identified as Hornady .380-caliber autos.

Later on New Year’s Day, Bailey and other officers served a search warrant on Allen’s apartment. They pried open a safe and recovered a .45-caliber Glock handgun that had been reported stolen from an Island County home in 2004.

In an interview, Bailey said it’s been difficult to investigate the car shooting because of “vague” and “inconsistent” statements provided by Allen. He said he hasn’t found anything that connects the alleged gun-pointing assault and the car shooting, beyond the fact that they both involved Allen and occurred around the same time.