Fatal Tacoma shooting might be case of mistaken identity in gang retaliation, charges say
Two men charged with murder in a December shooting in Tacoma might have targeted the victim because they believed he was responsible for shooting a member of a gang the defendants are said to be part of, charging documents state.
Tacoma Police Department detectives believe the men, Keon Simms and Kenneth Lamar Jr., might have killed the 46-year-old man outside an apartment in the city’s South End in a case of mistaken identity, according to the declaration for determination of probable cause.
Simms, 24, and 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.
Surveillance video, phone data, an anonymous phone call and physical evidence led prosecutors to charge Lamar and Simms with the murder. The work of Phoenix police investigating a sex-trafficking case helped locate Lamar in Arizona.
Charging documents gave this account of the homicide:
Tacoma police responded about 12:22 a.m. to an apartment complex in the 1800 block of South 93rd Street, where they found a dark-colored Honda Accord parked in front of a unit with an unresponsive man on the ground by the driver’s side door.
The victim, later identified as Arkell, had a single gunshot wound under his right arm, which the Pierce County Medical Examiner eventually determined to be his cause of death. According to the probable cause document, the side of the victim’s Honda was punctured by 17 to 20 bullets.
Evidence at the crime scene indicated there were at least two shooters. Detectives located eight .40-caliber shell casings and eight 9 mm shell casings.
Detectives interviewed several residents of the apartment complex, including a man who was with Arkell that night. He told police they were at the apartments to gather tools to work on his car. According to the probable cause document, the witness said he was rummaging through a vehicle in the parking lot for his tools when he heard what sounded like firecrackers nearby.
The witness reported seeing a vehicle speeding through the parking lot toward Ash Street. Then he noticed Arkell’s Honda was steaming. He went to the passenger’s side of the car to ask Arkell what happened, but the man was unresponsive in the driver’s seat.
Another person helped pull the victim from the car to the ground to render aid, and 911 was called.
Surveillance video from cameras at the apartment complex helped detectives determine the shooters’ vehicle was a Mercedes-Benz. According to the probable cause document, footage showed the car passing the victim’s Honda at 12:16 a.m. Then six minutes later, the car returns and muzzle flashes can be seen from two different windows as it passes Arkell’s car.
The day after the shooting, detectives were told an anonymous caller had reported they knew who committed the homicide and identified defendant Simms as the only shooter.
The caller claimed Lamar and another man were involved, and said Lamar was driving a Mercedes-Benz. Prosecutors say further research confirmed Simms owned a 2015 Mercedes.
A case of mistaken identity?
Several days before Arkell’s death, there was another shooting at the same apartment complex. According to the probable cause document, the person shot was a member of a gang.
Prosecutors wrote in charging documents that according to the lead detective, the defendants charged in Arkell’s case are members of the same gang. The car the victim was sitting in was the same make and color of the vehicle suspected to have been used in the previous shooting.
“Although detectives do not believe that victim J.A. was the shooter, they theorize that the defendants saw the victim sitting in his Honda Accord and, believing him to be the shooter from the earlier incident, retaliated against him when they saw his car in the parking lot,” charging documents state.
Shooting suspects located, arrested
A road-rage shooting Jan. 31 near South 54th and South Washington streets led to Simms being arrested and charged in the killing of Victor Scott of Graham. Simms is the only person who has been arrested in connection with the shooting, but others are suspected to have been involved.
Expended .40-caliber shell casings recovered from that road-rage shooting tied Simms to the scene of Arkell’s murder. According to charging documents, the casings appeared to match those found outside the apartment complex where Arkell died.
Further examination must be done by a state forensics lab to verify that, and results are pending.
Cell-phone records helped detectives locate Lamar in Phoenix, where police were looking for a runaway child possibly being trafficked for sex. According to the probable cause document, an Instagram account that had been used to communicate with the missing child was found to be connected to two phone numbers for Lamar.
On March 3, Phoenix police provided photos of a Mercedes sedan cited for a parking violation. Photos included the VIN number, which matched the VIN on the car registered to Lamar. He was eventually arrested in Phoenix on an outstanding warrant from Pierce County for not showing up in court for a sentencing hearing in an unrelated matter.
