TNT’s top stories: Murder sentencing, AD resignation, summer festival traffic

A disturbing murder case tied to fringe ideology and a shake-up in high school sports made headlines in Pierce County on Friday. Here’s a quick guide to what local residents need to know.

• Lars Eugene Nelson, 30, was sentenced to seven years and six months in prison for the second-degree murder of 27-year-old Sophie Tinney, whom he shot three times while she slept on Easter Sunday last year on Fox Island. Nelson’s defense attorney described her as a leader in the anti-natalist movement who persistently pressured Nelson over years to help end her life, and she was close friends with Guy Bartkus, the 25-year-old who died bombing a Palm Springs fertility clinic a month after her death.
• Gig Harbor High School athletic director Blair Suek is resigning at the end of the school year, the Peninsula School District confirmed. Suek fired varsity girls basketball coach Michele Hackett in late April, but the district reversed the decision less than two weeks later, saying proper administrative protocols were not followed. Hackett has since announced she’s leaving to coach at Stadium High School in Tacoma.
• The Maritime Gig Festival kicks off Saturday at 10 a.m. with a “Stars and Stripes” themed parade featuring more than 80 participants, and typically draws 6,000 to 8,000 people each day. Multiple road closures are in effect from 5:30 a.m. Saturday to 7 p.m. Sunday. Pierce Transit will offer a free shuttle from the Kimball Drive Park & Ride from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days.
• U.S. Rep. Emily Randall has submitted a $1.5 million federal funding request for a single-lane roundabout at a Key Peninsula intersection where Lackey Road Northwest, Jackson Lake Road Northwest and Key Peninsula Highway Northwest meet. The total project cost is $5.3 million, according to Pierce County Councilwoman Robyn Denson, and the roundabout is slated for construction in summer 2027 after the final phase of engineering design.

The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by senior editor Adam Lynn. The source reporting referenced above was written and edited entirely by journalists.