Tacoma student charged as adult in shooting outside Lincoln High School
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- A court commissioner set $250K bail for 16-year-old charged in shooting as an adult.
- Surveillance and witness accounts linked the defendant to handgun and shooting.
- Local leaders cite summer as a high-risk period for youth violence in Tacoma.
A Lincoln High School student accused of shooting and injuring another teenager Tuesday just outside the main entrance of the Tacoma school will remain in custody on $250,000 bail pending further hearings, a court commissioner ruled Friday.
Pierce County prosecutors charged the 16-year-old boy, whose initials are D.W-T., with first-degree assault and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm after he was arrested Thursday.
A plea of not guiltywas entered on his behalf at an arraignment hearing Friday afternoon at Remann Hall, the county’s juvenile detention center. He was automatically charged as an adult due to his age and the seriousness of the offense. According to the probable cause document, he has no prior criminal history.
Commissioner Mark Gelman ordered that only the defendant’s initials be published by news media in relation to Friday’s hearing. He said it was possible the case could be moved to juvenile court.
Gelman set bail at $250,000 and reserved further argument on bail to a later hearing. Prosecutors recommended he be held on $75,000 bail. Gelman rejected that amount, stating that the charges generally come with higher bail in adult court, and the incident occurred in a school setting with lots of people around.
D.W-T. sat quietly throughout the hearing in a blue uniform from Remann Hall. He gave a peace sign to his parents in the gallery after court adjourned.
It’s unclear what led to the shooting, which occurred shortly after the school day ended. According to charging documents, a witness told police she saw two high-school aged boys talking to each other on South 37th Street, but she said they didn’t appear to be in an altercation.
The witness heard one of them say something loudly that included the “N-word,” according to a police report. D.W-T. then allegedly pulled a handgun from near his waist and said something to the effect of “What N-word?” The witness turned away when she heard a gunshot.
The gunfire sent bystanders running. The 16-year-old victim was shot was struck in the buttocks and suffered a broken arm because he fell, records state. He went to Buddy’s Chicken & Waffles across the street, where he and an employee called 911. The boy later went to St. Joseph’s Medical Center, where he was treated for non life-threatening injuries.
A Tacoma Public Schools spokesperson confirmed Friday that D.W-T. is a student at Lincoln. The victim was enrolled in the district earlier this year but is not currently a student.
Surveillance video captured shooting
Surveillance video from Tacoma Public Schools reportedly captured the moment D.W-T. shot the victim at 2:47 p.m. and then fled east on 37th Street. Other surveillance video found by police showed him discarding his backpack and sweatshirt and changing his pants in an empty lot at Park Avenue and 38th Street.
Police also recovered the handgun D.W-T. is suspected to have used, a .25-caliber Taurus pistol. It was found next to a drainpipe and a small tree near 39th Street and Yakima Avenue, less than a half-mile from the shooting scene. It contained a bullet in its chamber that matched shell casings collected by investigators.
Interviewed by police at his home on Wednesday, the victim reported that he did not know the person who shot him. According to the probable cause document, he said he went to the school to give two friends a ride. He said he was talking to the school security officer right before he was shot.
Surveillance video showed D.W-T. exit the school’s main entrance with a backpack and sit on a half wall near the sidewalk. The victim approached from the west and reportedly waved at D.W-T. to follow him. D.W-T. followed him down the sidewalk.
A different surveillance video recorded D.W-T. standing on a sidewalk and facing south when he raised his arm and fired a gun.
Summer a bad time for youth violence
The shooting came during the last week of the school year in what has been a bad year for youth violence in Tacoma. Four people aged 18 and under have died by homicide since January, double the number of victims there were at this time last year.
Pierce County Executive Ryan Mello convened a panel of experts earlier this month at Tacoma Public Schools’ Central Administration Building to discuss what’s driving youth violence and how to help young people thrive.
Mello described summer as a particularly challenging time without the structure of school for young people. Panelists talked about programs such as Summer Teen Late Nights, which provides supervised spaces for young people to spend time with other kids during summer months.
Since 2020, Pierce County has, on average, lost 12 youth to homicide each year and 24 to suicide, said Ingrid Friberg, an epidemiologist at the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department who attended the roundtable. She said the youth homicide rate is about double what it was in 2010 but is still “dramatically lower” than what it was in the 1990s.
Two Gates High School students in Franklin Pierce School District who were at the June 9 meeting described feeling scared and having to watch their backs when they go to the mall, the grocery store or work.
Josh Garcia, Tacoma Public Schools superintendent, discussed the importance of summer jobs for young people and its Jobs 253 program, which he said did not have enough spots to meet demand.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Gates High School’s district.
This story was originally published June 20, 2025 at 2:36 PM.
