TACOMA, Wash. — The man arrested after a woman was found dead on the street in Tacoma's Stadium District the morning of May 1 was charged May 2.
Michael Anthony Cooley, 61, faces two counts of second-degree murder and third-degree assault.
On Wednesday, May 1, the Tacoma Fire Department was called to the 400 block of North G Street someone reported seeing a woman lying in the road. Fire personnel found the woman and she was declared dead around 2:30 a.m.
The fire department contacted the Tacoma Police Department after they determined she may have died by "homicidal violence," according to a TPD spokesperson.
Officers found a bloody concrete block nearby as they waited for detectives to arrive.
Police responded to the scene and found a group of residents outside the North G Apartments. One of the people in the group was Cooley, who said he was outside smoking with the victim, "stating everything was fine at the time," according to a statement of probable cause.
A security guard for the Tacoma Housing Authority was also on scene when police arrived. The North G Apartments are billed as low-income housing for seniors – they’re managed by the Tacoma Housing Authority.
The security guard told police that while he was on his route around 12:45 a.m. he drove near the area where the woman's body was found. He said he saw a man crouched down next to someone lying in a gutter and asked if they were OK. The man replied they were fine and the security guard drove away.
A resident of a nearby apartment complex told police she was on her balcony and heard a woman and man arguing. During the argument, she heard a woman yell "Oh, God, no," according to the statement of probable cause. She told police she hears loud voices from the North G Apartments all the time and went back inside.
A resident of the apartment complex showed police a text Cooley sent the victim on April 30 threatening her.
Surveillance footage shows a woman matching the victim's description walk out of the apartment around 1 a.m. She is outside for a few minutes when a man walks outside. A few minutes later the man appears to push the woman and she falls to the ground, according to the statement of probable cause.
The man then walks back inside and enters Cooley's apartment.
A few minutes later the same man exits the apartment with a dog, approaches the woman still lying on the ground and begins "manipulating her body and jacket." It's around that time the security guard pulls up to ask if everything is OK.
Surveillance footage shows the man remove the woman's jacket and go to the back of the apartment building. Detectives would later find the jacket in a trash can covered in blood.
After reviewing the footage, detectives contacted Cooley, who became uncooperative after they said they wanted to interview him at the police station, according to the statement of probable cause.
At the police station, Cooley stated he beat the victim to death. During his interaction with the woman, he said he told her he was going to help. However, she said he was going to go to jail for the rest of his life, Cooley told police.
"The defendant said, 'I am not going back,'" which is when he began attacking the victim. Records indicate he was previously convicted of second-degree murder in Virginia in 1985 and sentenced to 17 years in prison, according to the statement of probable cause. He was paroled in 1990.
Cooley then said he was "triggered" by something the victim said, adding he "snapped." He also said he removed her jacket because the tread pattern from his shoes could be seen on it.
When asked if he had hit the victim with the concrete block, he said he "might have" but did not admit to it. A detective asked if he walked the block over to the spot where it was found or threw it, and he said he might have thrown it, according to the statement of probable cause.
One of the victim's friends later told detectives the victim and Cooley were dating. She believed they had been dating since January.