Editor’s note: compiled from reports to Tacoma Police.
Nov. 17: The 23-year-old Tacoma man blew zombies away all night. Liquor fueled his killing spree.
He was playing the “Call of Duty” video game and scoring well. The guns in the game were made of pixels. The gun on the coffee table, a Glock 21, was real.
Officers responded to a report of shots fired at an apartment complex in the 1200 block of North Pearl Street. The call came in at 1:09 a.m. The reporting party said the shot came from a third-floor balcony, where the partying had been loud.
Officers found glass on the ground below the balcony, and two young men smoking near the stairwell. One of them was the 23-year-old.
He admitted he lived in the balcony unit. Had he heard any gunshots? No, he said. Would he mind if officers checked the apartment? No. Did he own any firearms? No.
Inside the apartment, officers found a handgun and a shotgun. Were there any other weapons in the apartment?
The man said yes.
Had he fired a shot off the balcony?
The man hesitated, and said yes.
He said he’d been drinking and playing the video game. He picked up the Glock and made a “sincerely bad” decision, pointing the gun in the air and firing a round.
Officers found a shell casing on the ground under the balcony. They found three handguns and four long guns in the apartment. The arrested the man and booked him on suspicion of unlawful discharge of a firearm, and gathered the guns for evidence. They handed the man a card explaining how he could recover his weapons later.
Nov. 21: The holiday season has arrived, and packages are landing on doorsteps. Thieves are following the delivery trucks, picking up presents for free.
The report from the 6800 block of South J Street is the first of many police spokesman Mark Fulghum expects to see in the coming weeks.
The victims, a Tacoma couple, said a delivery truck dropped off a package containing computer equipment. Before they could retrieve the package, a man with long brown hair who looked to be about 30 hopped out of a gray 1991 Dodge Caravan that was following the delivery truck. The witnesses said they saw three people inside the van.
The man ran up to the porch, picked up the box and hustled back to the van, which promptly drove away. The victims wrote down the license number and reported it to police. The van traced to an address in Fircrest, but officers didn’t find the vehicle and couldn’t be sure if that was where the owner lived. The plates were expired; they hadn’t been renewed since 2009.
Fulghum counseled wariness for residents expecting deliveries.
“This is the first one I’ve seen of the season,” he said. “It’s gonna start up again. It always picks up at Christmastime. If they’re following a truck around, they can see that there’s a package left.”
Nov. 12: It wasn’t Black Friday, but it felt like it. Shoppers at a discount store fought for the right of first entry, and an argument turned into an assault.
The store opened its doors at 9 a.m. Two women, one 56, the other 51, were waiting in line.
The doors opened, and the 51-year-old moved first. The 56-year-old didn’t like that. She began yelling that she was first.
The store manager, a 33-year-old woman, watched from a distance. The 56-year-old had caused trouble before, but it looked like the argument was over.
It wasn’t. The 51-year-old started looking at shoes. The 56-year-old approached her, and started arguing again. The talk grew heated.
The older woman was holding shoes. She punched the younger woman two or three times in the face and shoved her into a counter. The victim said she’d been hit with the shoes. Witnesses, including the manager, saw fists. Store staffers separated the women and called police.
Officers sorted out the details, speaking to all parties. The younger woman said she’d been hit. Witnesses said the younger woman didn’t start the fight and didn’t fight back, except to block the blows. The manager said the older woman had caused trouble in the past, and asked to have her banned from the store.
The older woman said she didn’t hit the younger woman. She said the younger woman hit her first.
That didn’t square with the statements from the other woman and the witnesses. Officers arrested the older woman and booked her into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of assault.
Sean Robinson: 253-597-8486
sean.robinson@thenewstribune.com
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