Tacoma mass shooting: Records detail how the deadly attack and investigation unfolded
Nearly a month after a quadruple homicide in Tacoma, it’s still not clear what led a gunman to walk into the backyard of a home and shoot the four people he found there.
Documents filed in the suspected shooter’s case do provide a timeline of how the deadly attack unfolded. And they offer details of how investigators located the defendant, 22-year-old Maleke Pate, at his home just about half a mile from where the shooting took place.
A connection has not yet been found between Pate and the victims of the shooting. Investigators said they don’t believe the attack was a robbery, and the victims were not associated with gangs or drugs.
The only connection investigators have pointed out is that Pate attended fifth grade with one of the victims.
The following account is based on the statement of a Tacoma Police Department officer who arrested Pate, charging documents filed in the case, a psychological evaluation which details Pate’s two involuntary commitments and The News Tribune’s previous reporting on the shooting.
Gathering turns into a nightmare
At about 4 p.m. Oct. 21, a woman who lives in the 4200 block of East Everett Street returned to her home in the tree-lined Salishan neighborhood. She was coming home from work when she saw her friends talking in a parking area in the backyard.
Maria Nunez was sitting in the driver’s seat of a car with her teenage son, Emery Iese, in the passenger seat. Raymond Williams and his girlfriend, Natasha Brincefield, were standing nearby.
The sight of her friends socializing in the backyard was common, so the woman went upstairs to play on her phone.
Twenty minutes later, the friendly scene became a deadly nightmare. Police determined the shooting began at about 4:22 p.m.
The woman heard two gunshots and looked out an upstairs window, where she saw a gunman shoot Nunez, who was trying to get out of the car. She saw Brincefield on the ground nearby. Fearing for her life, the woman ran to another upstairs window facing the front of the house.
Two houses south, two residents were sitting on their front porch when they heard the gunshots. Shortly after, they saw a gunman chasing Iese out of an alley and toward Everett Street. Iese fell to the ground near an SUV.
The woman watching from an upstairs window saw Iese put his hands up in a surrender position as he lay on the ground. The gunman walked up to Iese and shot him at an arm’s length.
Neighbors began calling 911, and Tacoma police were dispatched at 4:24 p.m. to reports of shots fired and multiple people on the ground. The first officer to arrive found Iese outside and dragged him behind a vehicle, where the officer started CPR.
Iese, Brincefield and Nunez were pronounced dead at the scene. Williams was taken to an area hospital, where he died.
Surveillance footage helps ID suspect
Surveillance footage captured the gunman walking to the scene and fleeing after the shooting.
By 7 p.m. Oct. 21, the search for the gunman in the immediate area had ended. A police dog searched the area but could not track the suspect.
That night, detectives interviewed witnesses while the scene was processed.
In the days that followed, police spent more time looking for surveillance footage. About 25 minutes before the shooting, a man was seen walking a dog in the 1800 block of East 44th Street before turning right onto East R Street.
More footage captured the man just five minutes before the shooting walking on East 44th Street back toward the area where the attack occurred.
On Oct. 25, detectives were able to share images taken from the footage in a bulletin sent to local law enforcement. The next day, a school resource officer recognized that man as Pate, a former student at Mount Tahoma High School.
As detectives began researching Pate, they found his last police contact was in the 1800 block of East Harper Street, which is 0.4 miles from the shooting location. In January, police were called to that address to assist a designated crisis responder who was trying to involuntarily commit Pate.
Pate’s mother called a crisis line for him Jan. 16, saying that he had been running out of the home constantly, screaming, talking nonsense and not sleeping at night. It was the second time that month Pate had been involuntarily committed to the hospital.
Police watch residence on Harper Street
On Oct. 27, the Tacoma Police Special Investigations Unit set up surveillance at the East Harper Street residence. For two days, officers watched as Pate came and went from the residence.
Detectives canvassed the neighborhood near the home Oct. 29 and showed residents three photos of the shooting suspect taken from surveillance footage, including a photo of him walking a dog.
Three different residents said the dog belonged to a nearby home on East 43rd Street. One woman who lives in the 1800 block of East Harper Street told police she often saw the suspect shown in the photos walking the dog. She pointed to the duplex on East Harper and said that was where the suspect lived.
Detectives were granted a search warrant for the residence the same day. A SWAT team surrounded it and called out to residents inside. Pate was the only person inside, and he was detained without incident.
This story was originally published November 17, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
