Man charged with shooting ex-girlfriend in chest at Parkland apartment arrested in Tacoma
A man who was charged with attempted murder last week in Pierce County for shooting his ex-girlfriend through her bedroom door, striking her in the chest, was arrested Thursday.
Richard Dwayne Christensen, 33, was arrested in the city limits of Tacoma by deputies from Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, with assistance from the FBI’s South Sound Gang Task Force, the sheriff’s department special investigations unit and SWAT team.
Christensen, who uses the nickname “Mouse,” was charged Dec. 30 in Pierce County Superior Court with first-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault, first-degree burglary and unlawful possession of a firearm. He has multiple prior convictions, including second-degree robbery, according to court records.
When he was taken into custody, deputies arrested him for investigation of an additional charge of unlawful possession of a firearm. Christensen had an active warrant for his arrest from November for the crime.
Christensen’s ex-girlfriend survived the Dec. 27 shooting in an apartment complex at 760 Polk Street in Parkland. But when she got out of surgery, medical personnel told deputies that they wouldn’t be able to remove the bullet because “if they did, she would bleed out and die,” according to charging documents.
This story was originally published January 6, 2022 at 3:45 PM.
