Toddler killed 2 months ago on tribal land near Tacoma; authorities are silent
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- A 2-year-old boy was fatally shot on Puyallup Tribal land in Tacoma.
- The Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office classified his death as a homicide.
- Tribal police haven’t released any incident details. The FBI didn’t respond to an inquiry.
Amory Goode Mitchell-Diaz Bradley, only 2 years old, died from a gunshot wound to the head more than two months ago on Puyallup Tribal property on the outskirts of Tacoma, but authorities remain silent about the how and the why.
So far, the only specific information comes from the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office, which has described the boy’s manner of death with one word: homicide.
The incident happened on Aug. 30 in the 3500 block of East Grandview Avenue in Tacoma, according to the Medical Examiner’s Office. The office published the victim’s identity on Oct. 13, when the cause and manner of death were still pending. It later updated its report to include those details.
The News Tribune sought police reports and basic information last month about the shooting from the Puyallup Tribal Police Department, which responded to the incident, yet no details have been provided.
“It is tragic to lose any life, especially a child’s,” the Puyallup Tribal Council said in a statement Friday night. “Tribal Police immediately turned the investigation over to the FBI, which has jurisdiction in tragedies like this. Our hearts are heavy with sorrow for the loss of this beloved member of our community.”
The FBI “has special jurisdiction to investigate crimes committed on about 200 reservations nationwide” and collaborates with Tribal police on major crimes that occur on Tribal land, according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Office of Justice Services.
Messages left for the FBI’s office in Seattle were not returned. An automated reply suggested that media inquiries would be addressed after the government shutdown ends.
Emily Langlie, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Washington, said Friday that the investigation was ongoing and “nothing is publicly filed at this time,” when asked whether anyone had been charged.
In general, coverage areas for the Puyallup Tribal Police and Tacoma Police departments are specific to properties within Tribal land, TPD spokesperson Shelbie Boyd said Thursday. The address where the shooting occurred was in the jurisdiction of Tribal authorities, she said.
TPD wasn’t dispatched to the incident and Tribal police, which maintains its own dispatch system, had advised that TPD’s assistance wasn’t needed, according to Boyd. The FBI’s gang task force, which includes one Tacoma police officer among its members, was called in to help investigate, she noted.
