15-year-old arrested for fatal shooting of Tacoma man inside apartment building
An arrest has been made in Tacoma for the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Messiah Washington.
Detectives and officers arrested a 15-year-old boy on Wednesday after they developed probable cause from their investigation. The teen was booked into the Remann Hall juvenile detention center on suspicion of first-degree murder, according to the Tacoma Police Department in a news release.
The teen will appear for a hearing Friday morning at Remann Hall, according to a spokesperson for the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
Officers were dispatched just after 9 p.m. to an apartment building near the 1100 block of South L Street on Feb. 22. Washington suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene after life-saving measures were initiated.
Washington died inside the apartment’s elevator, just a few steps away from the unit that he shared with his father, his sister, Kiara Deas told The News Tribune. Deas said their father watched Washington take his last breath.
“My dad raised my brother. Him and my dad were together every day,” she said. “He was very respectful, like you never would hear him being disrespectful to any adult. He had a lot of family around him, and we have a lot of people who loved him,” she said.
Deas believes “nothing is worth a life” and that the gun violence has to end.
A GoFundMe has been set up to raise funds to support Washington’s family as they take the time to grieve.
