Hilltop stabbing: Victim told to get off ‘my streets’ before being killed with own knife

A man killed in Tacoma’s Hilltop while riding a bicycle with his girlfriend was fatally stabbed with his own knife, court records state.

De’Angelo Reese, 40, was pedaling down the street about 2 a.m. Friday when a man approached him.

“You’re not gonna be hanging around here, these are my streets,” the man, later identified as 46-year-old Demarco Parker, reportedly told Reese.

Reese retorted that he could do whatever he wanted.

That sparked an argument, which continued up the block.

Reese’s girlfriend persuaded him to keep riding, but Parker followed. When Parker got too close, Reese told him, “Don’t run up on me,” and the two men began fighting, according to charging papers.

At some point during the scuffle, Reese pulled out a knife but Parker knocked it from his hand and picked it up.

Parker chased Reese around a traffic circle until Reese tripped over a curb in the 2100 block of South Sheridan Avenue. Parker then stabbed him multiple times, records show.

A passerby who heard the commotion and came to investigate startled Parker, who fled into his girlfriend’s waiting car.

Reese was taken to a Tacoma hospital, where he died.

Detectives found surveillance footage that showed the two men arguing in a front yard. Parker went into a house, and Reese allegedly followed behind, yelling.

The camera did not capture the homicide but showed Parker’s girlfriend, 43-year-old Shelly Eberwein, drive a sedan onto the curb and turn off the lights, according to charging documents.

Parker jumped into the waiting car after allegedly stabbing Reese, and the couple fled.

A man who lives inside the house that Parker entered told police that Parker advised him to stay inside after saying, “I have to take care of something,” records state.

After hearing a fight, the man went outside and saw Parker holding a bloody knife. He said he refused to take the knife when Parker asked him to.

Hours later, Eberwein and Parker returned to the house for Parker’s cell phone and clothes, records show.

At that time, Parker again asked the man to get rid of the bloody knife, so the man put it inside a bottle.

Investigators recovered the weapon after serving a search warrant at the man’s house.

Eberwein was arrested early Tuesday while leaving a house in the 3400 block of South Asotin Street. Parker was taken into custody by a SWAT team inside the same house.

Pierce County prosecutors on Tuesday charged Parker with second-degree murder and Eberwein with first-degree rendering criminal assistance. They are expected to make their first court appearance Wednesday.

This is not Parker’s first run-in with the law.

In June, he was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver after an undercover officer saw him pass a plastic baggie to somebody in a vehicle outside a convenience store, records show.

Parker allegedly had three baggies of methamphetamine in his right sock when he was taken into custody that day.

After he was released on his own recognizance for the drug charge, Parker was ordered not to possess weapons or change his address.

Parker was found to have violated his pretrial release in July because he changed his address, court records show. A judge again ordered Parker to be released on his own recognizance under the same conditions.

This story was originally published August 21, 2018 at 2:53 PM.