Confrontation over stolen car led to gunfire at Tacoma homeless camp. Now 2 are sentenced
A father and son have been sentenced to jail and prison time for their roles in a shooting over a stolen car that seriously injured a 33-year-old man at a homeless encampment in Tacoma.
James Brown and his son, Devae, pleaded guilty in Pierce County Superior Court last month to third-degree assault, down from first-degree assault, for the July 2022 shooting at an Eastside encampment. According to charging documents, the father had borrowed a blue convertible from someone but it was stolen, and he and his son went to the encampment to confront a man who’d been accused of taking it. Prosecutors alleged the man was beaten and then shot while he ran away.
The 55-year-old father was sentenced June 21 to 10 months in county jail. The son, who also pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, was sentenced July 7 to one year, six months in prison.
When Devae Brown, 21, was arrested, Tacoma Police Department detectives allegedly found more than 500 pills suspected to be fentanyl in the car he was driving, along with $1,000 to $2,000 and a 9 mm handgun. Witnesses initially identified the younger man as the shooter, according to the declaration for determination of probable cause, but it was his father who pleaded guilty to pulling the trigger. Records state the victim was struck in the liver, underwent surgery and had to be intubated for a time. When charges were filed, prosecutors wrote that they didn’t know if he would survive.
Judge Shelly Speir-Moss handed down the punishments, both of which carried deadly weapon sentencing enhancements and were within the standard range for defendants prosecuted in similar cases. James Brown’s most recent conviction was a misdemeanor from 2014 in Tacoma, and he was last convicted of a felony in 2010, for domestic-violence harassment. His son had no prior criminal convictions.
Prosecutors had difficulty producing key witnesses, which is in part why the father and son were allowed to plead guilty to a lesser offense. Deputy prosecuting attorney Brad Hashimoto wrote in court filings that three eyewitnesses were identified, and none could be reached. One witness died, and the lead detective in the case retired and moved to Georgia.
The two witnesses who were still alive were the victim and his girlfriend. The victim had reportedly been uncooperative for nearly the entire investigation and prosecution, so prosecutors obtained warrants for the witnesses’ arrest. Hashimoto wrote that the state believed the only way to get testimony would have been to bring them to the stand against their will.
According to court documents, the shooting occurred the evening of July 9 at a homeless encampment near the 400 block of East 66th Street. Police responded for reports of a male shot, and witnesses reportedly brought the victim to East McKinley Avenue to meet with first responders.
Officers met with the victim’s girlfriend, who explained that they stayed at the encampment from time to time, and that a few weeks ago the victim had borrowed an older blue car from a man she only knew as “Buddha,” according to the probable cause document. In a subsequent interview, the woman said the victim was accused of stealing it.
“Buddha” was later identified as Devae Brown, who had a tattoo of the word on his arm. The girlfriend reportedly told police there was a disagreement over the terms of returning the car, and that on the day of the shooting, “Buddha” came to confront the victim.
Detectives later found a report from March 2022 regarding a blue, 2005 Toyota convertible. The owner reported that his friend was driving the car when he was carjacked. Records state that according to the lead detective, it appeared that James Brown was driving, and it might have been the victim who carjacked him.
The girlfriend agreed to bring officers to the location of the shooting, reportedly walking them to nearby train tracks and through a hole in a chain-link fence that led to a clearing. Officers found a single 9 mm shell casing but no blood or other evidence.
In an interview with detectives, the girlfriend described how the shooting occurred. She reportedly saw James Brown sitting on the railroad tracks, and she said he called Devae Brown to meet him once the victim arrived at the camp. According to the probable cause document, they confronted the man and dragged him to the train tracks.
There, the girlfriend said, the father and son both physically assaulted the victim and that Devae Brown hit him in the head with a handgun. At one point, the victim broke free and ran, and the girlfriend said she heard one of his attackers say, “Just do it, shoot him,” before the man was shot.
