Tacoma hit its highest tally of homicides two years ago. 2023 saw a turnaround
A year after Tacoma recorded its highest tally of homicides since at least 1980, killings in the city and Pierce County began to decrease last year, falling in line with a nationwide trend.
There were 34 homicides in Tacoma in 2023, which is down from 45 in 2022. That is about a 24 percent decrease from last year. Tacoma averages about 18 homicides per year, according to the City of Tacoma’s website, but that number fluctuates.
Across Pierce County, there were 58 killings, down from 79 in 2022, a decrease of 27 percent. It is also a decline from 2021, which saw 68 homicides. That figure includes Tacoma, cities and towns such as Lakewood and Fife, as well as unincorporated areas. Of those 58 homicides, 15 remain unsolved and four were fatal shootings by police.
Nationwide, there was a 15 percent decrease in homicides last year, according to the FBI’s quarterly crime data for the third quarter of 2023. This data was collected from 14,005 out of 19,018 law enforcement agencies in the nation. This does not include two of the nation’s largest cities, Chicago and Los Angeles.
The News Tribune’s analysis of local homicides last year show that 83 percent of the killings were the result of shootings in Pierce County, including Tacoma. Ten victims were killed from gunshots. Five of the victims were stabbed to death while two were strangled. One victim was killed by a fentanyl overdose. The cause of death for two victims who were killed in different incidents was unclear, but both had blunt-force trauma.
Tacoma Police Department detective William Muse said the department’s Violent Crime Reduction Plan has helped reduce violence in “problem areas.” Those are areas in Tacoma which are considered a hotbed for criminal activity.
“We’ve seen officers who have worked tirelessly to help reduce crime,” he said.
The crime-reduction plan was implemented in June 2022 and targets violent crimes such as murders, robbery and aggravated assault. Tacoma Police Chief Avery Moore presented the plan in April 2022 during a spike in violent crime, according to a previous News Tribune report.
Muse said the department hopes to increase outreach to the community and engage youth to give kids different outlets to prevent criminal behavior. Muse said the department’s community relations supervisor frequently works to find ways to support the city’s youth and community members who might be at-risk. At this time, the department does not have set plans in the works for youth and community outreach.
The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department also saw a decrease in homicide investigations. There were 18 killings investigated by the department in 2023 compared to 25 in 2022.
“It’s good to see the numbers go back down closer to normal, but the goal is always to have zero homicides in the county,” said Pierce County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Darren Moss.
Moss said the Sheriff’s Department is hiring at a “light speed.” In 2023, the department hired about 34 law enforcement deputies and 48 correction deputies, the most it has hired in the 20-plus years Moss has been part of the department. The department hopes to continue hiring this year and have a full staff back on the streets.
The department has 12 law enforcement deputy vacancies. It currently has 324.5 full-time employees, including 312.5 deputies. Some of those people are in training or in the academy, so they are not part of the full-time staffing. By the time fall rolls around, the department will have 312 deputies full-time on staff, Moss said.
The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department solved 73 percent of its homicide case last year, compared to 62 percent in 2022.
The Tacoma Police Department had a solve rate of about 67 percent last year, which fell from 71 percent in 2022. In 2021, its solve rate was at a high of 87 percent.
The Lakewood Police Department had five homicides, which were all solved in 2023.
The Fife Police Department had one homicide, which was the fatal shooting of 23-year-old Rudolph King III, a U.S. National Guard Officer. Police allege that suspect Andrew Fonoti killed King in a drive-by shooting on Sept. 12. King was shot in the head when he was driving.
The youngest person killed last year was 4-month-old Cody Kennedy in Tacoma on Feb. 22. Kennedy was allegedly killed in the hands of his father, Samuel Bryon Kennedy. His father is accused of causing blunt force trauma to Cody’s head.
The oldest victim last year was 70-year-old Joseph Smith who was killed in Lakewood on May 15, alongside his acquaintance, 61-year-old Joseph Johnson. The two men died from gunshot wounds, and 30-year-old Ontario Lavell Pruitt was charged with the homicides. The motive for the killings allegedly stemmed from the fact that Pruitt’s uncle overdosed in the apartment unit that Smith and Johnson were in the day before.
Motivations for each homicide varied. The News Tribune found that 10 of the homicides had unclear motivations. Eight of the homicides stemmed from arguments and three from fights. Three homicides were categorized as domestic violence and two were gang related.
Four people died in police shootings last year in the county. Three of those incidents involved Pierce County Sheriff’s Department deputies, and one involved Tacoma Police Department officers. That number does not include a deadly standoff between deputies and homicide suspect 49-year-old Shaun Luzama in Bremerton on Nov. 17, 2023.
Luzama was charged for the killing of 41-year-old Michael Lefeau, which took place on Aug. 5. 2023. Luzama, and 47-year-old Denise “Sonia” Pangelinan were killed in a shootout after an hours-long standoff.
Moss said the Sheriff’s Department had five shootings involving deputies or people shooting at deputies in the last five weeks of the year. He said this is not something they want to see continue.
“The Sheriff’s Department is always going to be proactive and go after violent criminals and hopefully that’s part of the reason we see homicides go down in Pierce County,” he said.
2023 Unsolved Homicides In Tacoma
- Jan. 20: Wyatt Owens, 16, was fatally shot while driving in Tacoma’s West End.
- Jan. 15: Jevon Gipson, 47, was shot and killed outside an apartment building in Stadium District.
- March 17: Yi Un Ortega, 43, was killed in a shooting near the McKinley Hill neighborhood.
- March 25: Brock Watkins, 58, killed from sharp and blunt-force injuries and found dead in a tree line along South Tacoma Way.
- May 1: Marion Hodges, 50, was stabbed to death at a WinCo Foods in the 1900 block of South 72nd Street.
- May 14: David Robinson, 36, was fatally shot at a gathering at the 1500 block of South 56th Street. Police say Robinson’s friends witnessed a confrontation between Robinson and the unknown suspect but are not cooperating with the investigation.
- June 12: Anton Dixon, 32, was killed in a shooting in Tacoma’s Dome District.
- Oct. 31: Victor McVea, 40, died from multiple gunshot wounds near the 1900 block of Milwaukee Way.
- Dec. 18: Ngaire Tusi, 31, was fatally shot at the Oakland Madrona Park.
- Dec. 14: Christian Cherry, 24, was fatally shot at South 19th and State streets and died about two weeks later at the hospital.
Staff writer Peter Talbot contributed to this report.
