Family, friends of woman found dead in Tacoma street say she was hit by school bus
In the aftermath of the death of Brittanee Parker, a 32-year-old woman who died Oct. 4 in an incident police initially investigated as a fatal hit-and-run, family and friends allege she was killed by a school bus and are calling for greater scrutiny into the handling of the investigation.
In a statement delivered via email Sunday to The News Tribune, Luke Mann, Parker’s cousin, wrote that the concerns of Parker’s family and friends include the Tacoma Police Department’s alleged failure to complete welfare checks on Parker requested by her coworkers, how long it took for the family to find out what happened, and whether the alleged bus driver knew a person had been hit before driving on.
Mann wrote that loved ones are calling for an internal investigation into the Tacoma Police Department and the school district or bus company allegedly responsible in the pedestrian collision.
“As Brittanee’s family continues to work with the police, her friends remain focused on uncovering the truth and demanding accountability from those responsible,” Mann wrote.
In an update to a GoFundMe page for Parker’s funeral expenses, Mann wrote the family is continuing to ask for support to help cover legal fees and other costs.
Parker was found lying in the road outside her apartment in the Hilltop neighborhood on Oct. 4. Tacoma Police responded to the area of 800 S. 11th St. around 7:30 a.m. and she was pronounced dead at a local hospital, The News Tribune reported. According to Mann, Parker had just come outside to give her dog a bathroom break.
Tacoma Police Department spokesperson Shelbie Boyd told The News Tribune via email Oct. 14 that officers initially investigated the incident as a fatal hit-and-run because of where Parker was found. She told The News Tribune via phone today that she hopes to hear from the investigating detective for an update on the investigation by this Wednesday.
Tacoma Public Schools spokesperson Kathryn McCarthy told The News Tribune via email Monday that the incident did not involve a Tacoma Public Schools bus or their contractor company, First Student.
Asked Friday what school district the bus was driving for, Mann referred The News Tribune to Tacoma Police.
In his email, Mann alleged that Parker’s coworkers asked the Tacoma Police Department the day after her death to complete welfare checks on her after she didn’t show up to work, but the department refused multiple times that week to do so.
Tacoma Police spokesperson Boyd said that the department handles welfare checks based on the prioritization system set by South Sound 911, Pierce County’s regional 911 call center which dispatches officers to calls for service. How a call is prioritized depends on factors including whether someone is reporting an active incident or an incident in the past and what the danger to life is, she said.
There are times when officers can’t immediately respond to a welfare check because other calls have taken priority and all the available officers are in service, according to Boyd.
“I wouldn’t be able to tell you exactly how long a welfare check could sit on the board before it was dispatched,” Boyd said.
She said in order to respond to Parker’s family’s allegations that officers repeatedly denied requests for welfare checks she would need to review each of their calls for service.
Mann told The News Tribune that the family learned Oct. 10 that Parker had died, and he wrote in the statement that they were officially notified of the circumstances of her death on Oct. 18, two weeks after it happened. They are cooperating with police but have concerns about the transparency of the investigation, according to Mann.
“The delayed notification has compounded their grief and added to the family’s suspicion that the authorities were attempting to control the narrative before informing those closest to her,” he wrote.
Boyd denied that police intentionally delayed the release of the investigation in a phone call to The News Tribune Tuesday, saying that the detective has been working “nonstop” to piece together the investigation. But she understands the family’s frustration, she said.
“If it were my family member . . . every single second (of waiting) would feel like a year,” she said.
She provided the following timeline of events for the investigation:
Parker was found on Oct. 4, a Friday, and a detective went to the scene that day. There was no camera footage immediately available or direct witnesses of the incident that killed Parker.
Detectives spent time that week going door-to-door near the scene to see if anyone could identify the body they had found. They eventually found someone who thought the description matched Parker, so police did a welfare check on Parker’s residence and sent the identification information to the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office and the FBI around Oct. 9 or 10. They notified a family member of Parker’s death at that time, but hadn’t yet determined her cause of death.
Detectives later obtained video footage, according to Boyd. They couldn’t see the incident on camera, but they saw vehicles pass through the area, including a bus which they later tracked down and identified as the cause of Parker’s death after making contact with the bus company and a driver, Boyd said. Detectives confirmed the cause of death Friday, Oct. 18 based on their findings and the information received from the medical examiner.
Asked why the video footage wasn’t accessible sooner, Boyd said it can take time for detectives to make contact with neighbors who have cameras in an area. Police can only go as far as the mail carrier when approaching a person’s home, so if someone isn’t home, they may need to leave a card and hope the person calls them back, she said. They can also run a search on the address and see if there’s a phone number associated with the property they can call.
Police also can’t share all the details of an investigation with family members right away because it risks compromising the case, she said. In some cases, sharing information could lead to a suspect in a case fleeing or destroying evidence. They may wait to share until the information has been moved along to the prosecutor’s office and the police have all possible evidence secured, according to Boyd.
The detective is currently working on the written report of the investigation to send to the prosecutor’s office, she said. She wasn’t able to share when the report would be complete.
Parker was officially identified by the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office Oct. 16, but her cause and manner of death remain pending as of Oct. 21.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional information from the Tacoma Police Department about the timeline of the investigation.
This story was originally published October 21, 2024 at 5:22 PM.
