Relief and more questions from Salishan neighbors after mass shooting suspect arrest

Residents of the Salishan community expressed a sense of relief Saturday morning after learning police had arrested a suspect in the Oct. 21 killing of four people, but they worry what potential justice will mean for the neighborhood they call home.

“I just want to make sure it’s him,” said Sarah, who asked that her last name be withheld.

Tacoma police on Friday night announced the arrest of a 22-year-old male in connection to the Salishan homicides. The suspect, who appears to have lived in the neighborhood, was booked into the Pierce County Jail on four counts of first-degree murder.

Maria Nunez, 42, and her son, 19-year-old Emery Iese, were killed in the 4200 block of Everett Street around 4:30 p.m on Thursday, Oct. 21. Nunez’s brother, Raymond Williams, and his girlfriend Natasha Brincefield, both 22 years old, also died in the shooting. Nunez was the wife of Eastside pastor Louie Iese.

Standing on her front porch a few blocks north of where the shooting occurred, Sarah chatted with neighbor Chana Mercado, who has lived with her mother Carrie White in the neighborhood since 2019. They said the streets have been quieter than usual in the past eight days, as they had little information about who had committed this violence and why it happened.

Was the neighborhood targeted? Was it random? Would it happen again, maybe to someone in their family?

Sarah opted not to attend the neighborhood’s Halloween block party Friday night out of fear that the killer, or someone else with a gun, might return.

“It makes the kids and the people in the area even be afraid to speak to their neighbors,” Kendall Hagger told The News Tribune on Saturday.

He has lived on Everett Street for three years with his wife Althea. In talking with neighbors about the shooting, he stressed patience in finding the right answers.

“We have to really be patient with the questions,” he said. “Be patient through the resources of people.”

Police spokesperson Wendy Haddow said Friday that no other suspects were wanted in connection with the homicides.

Chatter among residents since the shooting has offered incomplete and sometimes conflicting pieces of the puzzle, but neighbors said they were not surprised to learn it was probably someone familiar with the area.

“It makes me feel a little bit easier,” said Mercado.

She and her daughter said they sit outside frequently smoking cigarettes and talking with neighbors. They recognize the cars always parked on the street and said that for the most part, this side of the development is quiet — save for the occasional kids yelling in the street or other typical neighborhood noise. Sometimes, though, they see an unfamiliar vehicle or witness an unsavory situation unfolding before them.

White and Mercado also recalled seeing a “suspicious” car slowly drive on Everett Street in their block on the night of the shooting. The driver stopped, suddenly took off and soon after they heard the gunshots, they said.

“We see a lot,” said White. “It was really sad, and yes, we heard the gunshots.”

Salishan, operated by the Tacoma Housing Authority, is a mixed development of subsidized and market-rate rental units and single-family homes. Located between Swan Creek Park and Portland Avenue, there is also a healthcare clinic and an elementary school.

The mass shooting has drawn extra attention to the otherwise quiet community. Mercado and Sarah, conversing outside as the trees lining Everett Street dropped leaves of reds and oranges, wondered if it would ever be the same.

This story was originally published October 30, 2021 at 3:47 PM.