Teen was killed at Tacoma apartment complex. His mother says the property deserves blame
The mother of a teenage boy who was fatally shot last year at a Tacoma apartment complex is suing the property for wrongful death.
Larry Marshall III, a 16-year-old known to family and friends as Trae, was killed at the Lakeside Landing Apartments on March 29, 2023. He was shot at nearly three dozen times in a parking lot and died of multiple gunshot wounds, according to court records and the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Jillian Marshall, a personal representative of the teen’s estate, filed a lawsuit this month in Pierce County Superior Court. The suit alleges the apartment complex’s owner, operator and property management failed to protect her son, who did not live on the premises but had been invited there by a friend. The filing didn’t specify Jillian Marshall’s relationship to the victim, but their relationship was noted in a GoFundMe campaign started by the family.
“As a result of Defendants’ inaction and/or failure to secure the property for the safety of invitees and residents, Mr. Marshall was shot multiple times within a common area of the subject premises,” the lawsuit reads.
The complaint, which was filed on Oct. 9, named four limited-liability companies (LLCs) among the defendants. A message seeking comment from the main company behind the LLCs was not immediately returned Monday.
The suit claimed that the apartment complex in the 1400 block of S. Mildred Street had been “the site of extensive prior criminal history” but didn’t specify other events in that alleged history. An attorney representing the plaintiff didn’t immediately return an inquiry Monday.
According to the complaint, the defendants were negligent in the victim’s death and failed him on multiple fronts, including by not providing adequate security and surveillance, not monitoring potentially harmful activity on the premises and not addressing crime that occurred there.
“Plaintiff is informed and believes that prior to and on the date of the subject shooting, the subject premises were negligently maintained, inspected, secured, patrolled and managed,” the suit said.
The lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages, including funeral and burial expenses and legal fees.
Three known gang members were charged in April 2023 with first-degree murder in Larry Marshall’s death. Two teenagers in a vehicle allegedly waited for Marshall to walk into a parking lot before firing at him 33 times, charging papers showed.
The case remains ongoing, according to court records.
The killing might have been retaliation for a robbery, The News Tribune previously reported. One of the murder suspects, a man who was allegedly behind the wheel of the vehicle, had been robbed a few days earlier at a barbershop by two people reported to be Marshall’s friends, records showed.
Tyrus Kenneth Walker-Scott, 20, pleaded guilty for his role in the robbery in December and was sentenced to 51 months in prison.
In October 2023, a 31-year-old man was shot and killed at the Lakeside Landing Apartments in an unrelated incident.
