Court orders evaluation for Tacoma mass shooting suspect to determine competency for trial
A man accused of fatally shooting four people in Tacoma’s Salishan neighborhood last month will have a mental health evaluation to determine his competency to stand trial, a judge ordered Monday.
Pierce County prosecutors charged 22-year-old Maleke Dominque Pate with four counts of aggravated first-degree murder for the Oct. 21 deaths of Maria Nunez, 42; her son, Emery lese, 19; Nunez’s brother, Raymond Williams, 22; and Williams’ girlfriend, Natasha Brincefield, 22.
Pate was scheduled to be arraigned Monday. Instead, deputy prosecutor Lisa Wagner asked the court to order Pate to undergo a competency evaluation, explaining that Pate had two involuntary commitments in January.
Pierce County Superior Court Judge Clarence Henderson Jr. agreed and ordered Pate held without bail pending the evaluation.
Wagner asked that the evaluation be done at Western State Hospital, suggesting it might be more detailed, and that it’s important they have the time they need with the defendant. Defense attorney Harley Hunner asked that it be in custody at the jail instead, suggesting that would be faster.
A competency hearing is scheduled Nov. 15. Henderson said if an adequate evaluation can’t be done in custody, a motion to have it done at Western State can be brought at that time.
Pate was arrested Friday.
Investigators say they don’t know the motive behind the quadruple homicide but don’t believe it was a robbery. They said the victims were not associated with gangs or drugs and continue to look for a connection between Pate and the four people he shot.
Marlene Williams, mother of Maria Nunez and Raymond Williams, spoke to reporters outside court.
“I want justice,” she said. “I want him to go to prison.”
Williams said she didn’t know Pate and hadn’t seen him before.
“I don’t think he realizes how many people that he hurt,” she said. “... I don’t know why he did this, and I want to know why.”
Williams said she was relieved that Pate had been arrested, and she thanked the community for its prayers. She also said she plans to move.
“I can’t stay there,” Williams said.
Nunez was her oldest daughter and Raymond Williams was her youngest child of seven, she said. Nunez lived six blocks from her mother, and the last the family heard from her, she picked up Iese from work and said she had to pick up some documents from her mother’s home in the Salishan neighborhood, The News Tribune reported.
When she learned about the shooting, Williams thought there must have been a mistake. Her loved ones focused on work and home, she said, and never did anything wrong.
“I loved all of them,” she said. “... I still think they’re going to come home.”
This story was originally published November 1, 2021 at 2:59 PM.
