Drive-by at Tacoma apartment left 4 wounded by masked shooters. 2 have been sentenced
Two people have been sentenced to prison for injuring four people in a drive-by shooting at a Tacoma apartment building that reportedly stemmed from arguments between one defendant and a neighbor.
Ronnay Chaneece Scott, 38, is serving a 13-year sentence for drive-by shooting and first-degree assault. Her co-defendant, Maleik Alexander Rosa, 20, pleaded guilty Monday to four counts of second-degree assault and was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Pierce County prosecutors say Scott was the “mastermind” of the July 3, 2022, shooting that wounded two men and two women outside an apartment building in the 3300 block of South Asotin Street, just south of the Interstate 5 and state Route 16 interchange.
Charging documents alleged that two days of arguments between Scott and a neighbor over “parenting issues” led to a fight on July 3 where Scott allegedly pulled three braids from the scalp of the other woman, whose mother had to break up the fight. Scott left and returned to the building later that day in a vehicle with three to five other people, according to different witness accounts.
The people in the the vehicle wore ski masks, according to court records. They shot at the victims, who were standing outside the building from about 20 feet away. One shooter reportedly used a rifle.
The woman Scott had argued with was not struck by gunfire, but her mother was shot in the toe, according to court records, and the mother’s son was shot in the thigh. A third victim, a pregnant woman, was shot in her hip and left thigh, and a fourth was struck in the abdomen.
None of the injuries were life threatening, police said at the time. Officers responded at about 9:08 p.m. and then deployed a drone, SWAT and a police dog to try to locate the shooting suspects, according to charging documents. They weren’t initially successful.
Scott was arrested four days later when she was found standing near a Nissan Murano she was reportedly seen driving to bring her children away from the building before the shooting. Scott identified Rosa and her sister as the two other people who were present when the shooting occurred, and she claimed she had acted out of self defense after being assaulted.
Rosa was arrested a month after the shooting, during which time detectives discovered that he fled to Georgia. He was reportedly a suspect in three other shootings in Tacoma. He returned to Washington in August, and police pursued and arrested him when he was seen getting into a car.
The punishment Superior Court Judge James Orlando imposed for Rosa on Monday was at the high end of the standard sentencing range, 63 to 84 months, and it included a 12-month deadly weapon sentencing enhancement. He and Scott remained in custody for the duration of their cases.
Rosa’s defense attorney did not respond to a request for comment. The defendant has four prior felony convictions as a juvenile.
Scott pleaded guilty to her part in the shooting Dec. 1, 2023, and she was sentenced seven days later, receiving a punishment below the standard range. She has no prior criminal convictions.
