TACOMA, Wash. — Tacoma’s homicide rate continues to rise after a weekend of deadly violence.
Two shootings occurred on Sunday that left two people dead and a woman injured.
The first shooting occurred just after 2 a.m. in the 200 block of South 80th Street, where a 51-year-old male victim was found dead.
The second occurred just after 10 p.m. in the 5200 block of South M street. A 32-year-old male victim was declared dead at the scene by Tacoma Fire. An 18-year-old female victim was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Tacoma police said they received multiple 911 calls in regard to the shooting Sunday night.
When officers arrived, they found a 32-year-old man shot in the driver’s seat of a vehicle. Police said the 18-year-old woman was a passenger in the car.
The man was unresponsive when officers arrived.
Police said the vehicle the man was in struck an unoccupied car that was parked on the street. KING 5 crews at the scene saw more than a dozen evidence markers on the ground early Monday morning.
Jeremy Lanning, who lives nearby on South M Street, said he heard the shots, but was surprised to see just how close he was.
“I stuck my head out the window just in time to see them come all the way around here, and he just missed Jon’s truck and slammed into mine, and by that time, I was on the phone with 911,” he said.
Tacoma police said the shooting is being investigated as a homicide. No other information was available by Monday night.
There has been a steady increase in homicides in Tacoma over the past several years.
Public Information Officer Wendy Haddow said Tacoma police have investigated 36 homicides so far in 2022. There have also been three deadly police shootings in 2022, Haddow said.
Tacoma police investigated a total of 34 homicides in 2021, 31 homicides in 2020 and 23 homicides in 2019. Haddow said there were 18 homicides in Tacoma in 2018 and 12 in 2017.
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