‘Wish it never happened.’ Neighbor reacts to mass shooting in Spanaway that left 2 dead
A once-quiet Spanaway neighborhood is shaken after a shooting broke out during a house party overnight Saturday that left two dead and four others injured.
The shooting reportedly stemmed from a fight that happened in the middle of the street in the 17800 block of 25th Avenue Court East just after midnight at 12:23 a.m., according to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office. 30-40 juveniles were running and screaming from the house party after shots were fired.
“Just before deputies arrived, shots were fired, and people and vehicles were fleeing the scene. Vehicles were getting stuck in the neighborhood while chaos embodied the entire street,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
One male victim was found in the street, later pronounced dead at the scene. Five others self-transported to local hospitals, the release said, and one later died from injuries.
Shell casings littered the street when deputies arrived, according to the department.
A house directly across from the party has bullet holes in its garage door. There also appears to be a bullet hole and blood stain on the outside of the house where the party took place.
Around 50 vehicles were parked all along the street and in front of driveways for the party, Cindy Bickford, a long-time resident in the neighborhood, told The News Tribune. Bickford is also a secretary of the neighborhood’s homeowners association.
Prior to the shooting, Bickford said one of her neighbors was on watch duty and was concerned about the large party as well as the cars that were parked all along the road. The neighbor called the 911 non-emergency line at around 11:30 p.m. When the neighbor was walking back to his house, he heard gunshots. Bickford said officers did not show up until five minutes after shots were fired.
“After midnight, I heard four or five gunshots, and they at the end, they sounded like fireworks possibly, but I didn’t know what it was,” she said. “I heard the police sirens coming, so I knew there was gunfire in the area, and I just hunkered down in my house.”
Bickford does not know if an adult was at the party, but wishes someone was responsible enough to send people home, she said.
“Or even the police officers that were called to be alerted about this party that they would have showed up a little bit sooner, so that this could have been prevented,” she said.
Sheriff’s Office spokesperson deputy Carly Cappetto confirmed that neighbors were correct, and said the noise complaint calls started to come in around 10 p.m. She said officers were wrapped up with a previous homicide and had several other priority calls to attend to, which is why they did not immediately respond to the noise complaint.
“When neighbors reported people were running from the home screaming, and fighting was happening, it escalated to a priority response,” Cappetto said in an email. “While deputies were pulling into the neighborhood, the shots had been fired approximately 30 seconds before the deputies arrived on scene. Deputies had a very difficult time accessing the area of the shooting and the victims due to the tight narrow laned street that was lined with cars on both sides. With vehicles fleeing the scene and people running all over screaming, it made for a chaotic scene.”
She added that some deputies had to park a couple blocks away from the shooting scene and run to the area.
The morning after, Bickford said when she saw that deputies had shut the street down and a command vehicle was parked there, she realized a tragedy had occurred.
“I wish it never happened,” she said. “We’re a pretty safe community, we watch out for each other.”
Bickford said the house where the party took place is a rental and the homeowners are supposed to move back in eventually. There is a gate that people must have a code for when they enter the neighborhood, she said. It appeared someone passed out the gate’s code for the party, which will now be changed.
She said that she has lived in the neighborhood for 22 years and believes the area is pretty quiet with everyone watching out for one another. The HOA plans to have a meeting later this week to address the shooting, Bickford said.
“We’ve never had a murder like this in this neighborhood,” she said. “It’s gonna destroy this neighborhood right now, because this is a big tragedy.”
This story was originally published March 29, 2025 at 2:25 PM.
