Murder suspect was detained by police 2 hours before killing. Here’s why he was let go
A man charged with killing someone in Eastside Tacoma earlier this month was briefly detained as a carjacking suspect about two hours before the murder but was let go because authorities didn’t have probable cause to arrest him, court records show.
Later that night, Pierce County prosecutors now say, Donald Oliva Salave’a shot Riley Kimbrough to death in a house in the 1300 block of East Fairbanks Street in Tacoma.
Salave’a was arrested by Tacoma police Monday, four days after he allegedly gunned down Kimbrough, 46.
On Wednesday, Salave’a, 37, pleaded not guilty in Pierce County Superior Court to charges of first-degree robbery, first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm and two counts of second-degree murder. Superior Court Commissioner Craig Adams set bail at $1.5 million.
The defendant has a criminal history in Pierce County, including a 1998 conviction for first-degree child rape and first-degree child molestation, court records say. Salave’a also has been convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm and failure to register as a sex offender from 2004 to 2010.
Charging documents do not lay out a clear motive as to why Salave’a would have killed Kimbrough.
According to documents, Salave’a had been at the residence on Fairbanks Street several times in the days prior to the killing. Residents of the home told police they knew him as “Goose” and said he was seen with a gun several times.
Residents told police Salave’a usually came to the home to see Kimbrough, and one noted a recent conversation between the two men where Kimbrough was asked “if he handled his business right.” The victim said he had, but Salave’a allegedly accused him of lying and said he had to handle it for him, court records state.
It’s unclear what the “business” was about, but the resident thought it had to do with a car.
Homicide victim present at carjacking
During their investigation into Kimbrough’s death, officers learned of an armed carjacking in University Place that occurred before the shooting. Sheriff’s deputies reported the carjacking occurred after Kimbrough, described as an acquaintance of the person whose car was stolen, came to the man’s residence with two other men.
The carjacking victim described the men, whom he didn’t know, as a Samoan man and a Black man, according to the declaration for determination of probable cause. The Samoan man allegedly pulled out a gun, held it by his side and told the victim to give him the keys to the black Lexus. The victim said he didn’t have the keys, but his girlfriend handed them over, and the Samoan man and Black man got in the victim’s car and drove away. Court records state Kimbrough got in his own vehicle, a Buick SUV, and left.
The carjacking victim followed both vehicles in another car and called 911, according to the probable cause document.
“Dispatch repeatedly told [the victim] to stop pursuing the vehicle, but [he] did not stop,” the probable cause statement shows. “Deputies were unable to contact [the victim] to develop probable cause for a crime until about an hour later due to [the victim’s] lack of cooperation.”
Meanwhile, a Fircrest police sergeant saw the Lexus near South 19th and Pearl streets and tried to pull it over. The Lexus took off eastbound on South 19th Street, collided with a motorcycle and continued onto southbound Union Street where it rear-ended a Honda CRV, court records show.
“The driver of the Lexus, identified as defendant Donald Salave’a, was then detained by the Fircrest Sergeant,” according to the probable cause statement. “Because the deputies at that time did not have probable cause to arrest the defendant for the robbery/car theft, they only identified him, but did not detain him. Additional charges might be filed related to these two crashes.”
Fatal shooting on the Eastside
About 10:13 p.m. May 19, Tacoma police responded to a home on East Fairbanks Street after a woman called 911 to report someone shot her boyfriend, court records show. She told dispatchers he was still breathing and that the person who shot him left minutes earlier.
Officers arrived and found Kimbrough on his back near the front door of the home with a single gunshot wound to the head, according to the probable cause document. Tacoma Fire Department personnel declared him dead at the scene.
The girlfriend later told police she had been dating Kimbrough, who also went by “Solo,” for seven months and that he had been living with her.
According to her account, Kimbrough returned to the residence about an hour before the shooting. She said he had been gone since the night before, possibly doing some tattoo work. The couple was hanging out when a man known to her as “Goose” came into the house holding a brown, semiautomatic handgun. According to the probable cause document, a person identified only as “Chewy” was also at the home.
“Goose” was described by the woman as a Samoan male who was about 6 feet tall and 220 pounds with short brown hair. She told the man the gun he was carrying scared her, according to the charging document. “Goose” went into the kitchen and called for Kimbrough to follow.
“She overheard ‘Goose’ telling the victim to get her truck keys, but he refused,” prosecutors wrote in the probable cause document. “She heard ‘Goose’ make a comment about ‘who wears the pants here?’ Shortly after this, she heard a shot go off. She heard ‘Chewy’ state, ‘Better get the [expletive] out of here.’”
The victim’s girlfriend went to the kitchen to tell the men to calm things down and saw Kimbrough on the floor. Court records say “Goose” and “Chewy” were gone.
Murder suspect arrested in Hilltop neighborhood
Based on witness descriptions of “Goose,” detectives tried to find other police reports where that nickname, “Uso” or “O” were used, according to the probable cause document. They came across two cases. One was a 2009 Lakewood Police Department case where a Samoan male who went by “Uso,” or possibly “Goose,” was involved in a shooting.
The second was a 2019 Tacoma police case where a person said they were assaulted by a Samoan man with a street name of “Oose.” In that case, officers ended up contacting defendant Salave’a, and the victim identified him as the man he knew as “Oose.”
On Tuesday, a special investigations unit with Tacoma police located Salave’a going into a residence in the 1400 block of South M Street in the city’s Hilltop neighborhood. According to the probable cause document, Salave’a was taken into custody without incident and taken to police headquarters to be interviewed.
Police obtained a search warrant for the M Street residence and located a 9 mm handgun. Charging documents did not describe the gun in any more detail, but prosecutors wrote that it appeared to match the caliber of the weapon used to shoot Kimbrough.
After being read his Miranda rights, police said Salave’a rambled and was difficult to understand, according to the probable cause document. Detectives believed he was under the influence of narcotics.
“When detectives began talking about the shooting, the defendant ‘showed no emotion, had no questions about it, and skipped past the issue, focusing on other things.’” court records state.
