Man, 19, charged with murder in Spanaway shooting. Victim found dead in the street
A 19-year-old man has been charged with murder for shooting a man to death last week in a Spanaway residential neighborhood.
Tameron Nelson Rodriguez was charged Monday in Pierce County Superior Court with two counts of second-degree murder in the July 5 shooting. Rodriguez turned himself into the Sheriff’s Department on Friday.
According to charging documents, the shooting occurred in a cul-de-sac after the victim walked toward the defendant’s younger brother in a driveway and began talking with him. Sheriff’s Department deputies said an altercation ensued. When deputies arrived shortly after 1 a.m., the victim was found dead in the street with multiple gunshot wounds to the head. He has not yet been publicly identified.
Pleas of not guilty were entered on the defendant’s behalf at arraignment Monday afternoon. He was released from Pierce County Jail on Tuesday after posting a bail bond for $125,000. According to court records, Rodriguez does not have any prior criminal history.
The gun used in the shooting had yet to be recovered Monday, according to the declaration for determination of probable cause. It’s unclear whether that has changed. A Sheriff’s Department spokesperson was not immediately available to comment.
Charging papers don’t detail what detectives believe led to the shooting, but at some point, the victim pepper-sprayed Rodriguez’s younger brother. His mother told deputies he came inside and poured milk on his face to try to counteract it, and investigators found a canister of the spray in the dead man’s hand.
A surveillance camera captured some of what happened. According to the probable cause document, it showed Rodriguez pacing on the front porch while his younger brother, age 16, sat in a chair in the driveway. When a third person who looked to be the victim walked into the cul-de-sac and started talking with the brother, Rodriguez is allegedly seen taking a handgun from a satchel he was wearing.
The brother walked into the street, followed by Rodriguez, the video allegedly shows. The three males walked out of camera view, and several bright flashes consistent with a handgun firing can be seen. Immediately after, Rodriguez and his brother walked toward the house, and then Rodriguez walked back into the street and out of view.
Charging documents gave this account:
Deputies with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department responded just after 1 a.m. to the 1800 block of 187th Street Court East for a report of a possible shooting. When they arrived, deputies found the victim lying on his back with blood pooling under his head. A woman was standing over him.
The woman reportedly said she went outside after she heard people yelling that someone had been shot. She found the victim and tried to perform CPR. Another victim told deputies he saw a confrontation in the street between the woman’s son, another male and the victim. Nearby, detectives found seven 9 mm shell casings, and a trail of blood indicated that the victim ran to where he was found.
Deputies learned that a 911 call for a suspicious vehicle came in just before calls about the shooting. Records state it was the woman who called 911. She reportedly told deputies she was sweeping fireworks debris from the street when she saw a gray Hyundai she believed to be stolen approach. The woman said the driver was wearing a black ski mask, and she jumped on the hood of the car, managing to grab a license plate from the dashboard. She got off the hood, called 911 and minutes later heard a commotion from the shooting.
Prosecutors wrote in charging papers that the woman’s story changed during the course of the investigation, and surveillance video later showed she wasn’t being truthful. At one point her son, the 16-year-old boy, was detained, and she then told investigators she recognized the driver of the stolen Hyundai as a friend of her older son, Rodriguez.
The woman then showed deputies surveillance footage that showed Rodriguez earlier in the day. She reportedly said she thought he’d left the house at about midnight, and she initially said the camera didn’t capture the shooting.
But when she was asked to look again, a deputy saw a video of Rodriguez walking across the front lawn while holding a gun. Records state the woman began to put away her phone, but deputies asked her to play it in full. She agreed, and deputies were shown the video of the defendant pacing on the porch before the shooting. The woman allegedly confirmed that the person in the video with the gun was Rodriguez.
