Tacoma shooting destroys a bright future

Camille Love was excited about signing up for college.

The 20-year-old had taken time off after graduating from high school on Whidbey Island and decided she wanted to be a veterinary technician. She asked her grandfather to come with her Monday to register for classes at Pierce College.

Instead, Love’s family was mourning her loss and rallying around her younger brother after an unknown gunman shot the two Sunday night on Tacoma’s East Side in a suspected road rage incident.

“It’s just devastating,” the siblings’ grandfather, Paul Sjunnesen, said Monday.

Josh Love, 19, wounded in the arm, was receiving treatment at Tacoma General Hospital. Camille Love died at the scene. The gunman, who had been driving a stolen white minivan, remained at large Monday.

There were no initial indications the shooting was linked to gang activity, police spokesman Mark Fulghum said. Investigators have interviewed Josh Love and believe a minor traffic issue might have provoked the gunman.

“There was nothing intentional on the victims’ part,” Fulghum said. “It was just a brother and sister who were out. That’s all they were doing.”

The Loves’ family was struggling to comprehend what happened and why.

“We are trying to understand what was the whole point,” said their aunt, Helene Bell. “They were just driving down the street.”

The family asked anyone who might have seen what happened to contact police. So far, investigators have only a vague description of the gunman.

“We just ask that they come forward, help the situation out,” said Bell’s husband, Kenneth.

Camille and Josh Love had been staying with their mother in Parkland. Shortly before the shooting Sunday night they left a family dinner and were headed north on Portland Avenue on the way to a friend’s house.

They were laughing and talking as Camille Love drove down the street, her brother told police. They noticed a white minivan following them about 10 p.m. and the two vehicles stopped side by side at a couple of traffic lights, Fulghum said.

At East 64th Street and Portland Avenue, the minivan stopped in the right lane with the Loves’ car in the left lane of the north-south thoroughfare.

When the light turned green the minivan driver, without saying anything to the Loves, opened fire on their car, Fulghum said. Several shots were fired before the minivan sped down Portland Avenue.

Love’s car kept going downhill and came to a stop in its lane in the 5600 block of Portland Avenue.

Officers found the minivan a short time later after someone in the area reported the vehicle had been left running in the middle of the street about a mile or two from the shooting scene, Fulghum said.

The minivan had been reported stolen out of Auburn. Its owners last saw it late Saturday and noticed it missing late Sunday morning.

Helene Bell described her niece as an active, lovable and compassionate young woman. Josh Love just had a son two months ago and Camille was crazy about her nephew, Bell said.

“She was just getting ready to start her own life,” Bell said. “This would have been her first year in college.”

Sjunnesen said his granddaughter loved animals.

“If a stray elephant was walking around, she would go get it and bring it home,” he said.

Sjunnesen said Josh Love was healing at least physically.

“Emotionally, he is very, very stressed,” he said. “Their father is a career Marine. When he had to move and they had to move, they always had each other.”

Bell and her husband went to the crime scene Monday to see where the deadly shooting occurred and to say a prayer.

“This is a very huge loss for us,” Helene Bell said. “The family is just tore up.”

Stacey Mulick: 253-597-8268

stacey.mulick@thenewstribune.com

blog.thenewstribune.com/crime

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