Two men charged with murder in fatal shooting at Tacoma apartment
Two men have been charged with murder for allegedly shooting and killing a 46-year-old man in December at an apartment complex in Tacoma’s South End.
Keon Simms, 24 and Kenneth Lamar Jr., 27, were charged Friday in Pierce County Superior Court with first-degree murder and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm in the Dec. 20 killing of Jason Arkell.
Lamar was arrested Thursday in Phoenix, Arizona on an unrelated warrant, according to a news release from Tacoma Police Department. Simms was already being held at Pierce County Jail on separate charges from a road rage incident in February that left a 56-year-old man dead.
Simms is to be arraigned Monday afternoon. His co-defendant is pending extradition to Washington state.
The fatal shooting of Arkell occurred outside an apartment in the 1800 block of South 93rd Street. Officers were dispatched shortly after midnight to reports of a shooting. Police found the victim unresponsive in the parking lot, and he was declared dead at the scene.
The Pierce County Medical Examiner later determined Arkell died of a gunshot wound to the torso.
This story was originally published April 15, 2022 at 11:14 AM.
