Jury acquits man of fatal shooting in Tacoma. Is someone else responsible?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Jury acquitted Shane Freeman of a 2024 Tacoma murder amid weak evidence.
- Trial evidence pointed to alternate suspect who had an altercation with the victim.
- Prosecutors and police have not confirmed whether they will reopen the probe.
A 38-year-old man was acquitted last week in a murder trial for a fatal shooting in Tacoma on a running and biking trail along state Route 16. Evidence admitted at trial pointed to another suspect as possibly the shooter.
Shane Joseph Freeman was arrested in October 2024, more than two months after 21-year-old Aidan Schmidt was shot in the chest multiple times while riding a motorcycle on the Scott Pierson Trail near South 19th and Mullen streets.
Prosecutors described a long-standing conflict between Freeman and Schmidt that preceded the shooting outside a homeless encampment on the trail, but no eyewitnesses identified a shooter, and no physical evidence tied Freeman to the scene. A Mountain Dew can was found nearby, a soda brand Freeman was known to drink.
When Freeman was arrested in a tent in the North End, investigators found another can of Mountain Dew and a 9 mm handgun. Charging documents noted that was the same caliber of firearm used to kill Schmidt. Forensic testing later found it did not match the shell casing recovered at the scene.
Freeman’s defense attorney from the Department of Assigned Counsel, Ryan Hogaboam, pointed to a different, more recent conflict between Schmidt and another man identified in charging documents by the nickname “K2.” Prosecutors wrote in a trial brief that he was identified by several witnesses as a possible suspect, but he was excluded by law enforcement.
Pierce County Superior Court Judge Philip Thornton allowed evidence about the other suspect to be admitted at trial, finding that a motive, opportunity and connection to the crime tended to point to a “nonspeculative link” between K2 and the shooting, according to an Oct. 6 order regarding “other suspect” evidence.
Days before Schmidt was shot, Schmidt punched the man with brass knuckles in an altercation over money K2 owed Schmidt. According to the defense’s trial brief, Schmidt reportedly stated if he didn’t get his money from K2, then K2 was going to have problems. Brass knuckles were also found on Schmidt when he was killed.
Hogaboam also pointed out that K2 tampered with the crime scene by moving Schmidt’s motorcycle up a hill, across 19th Street and a short distance down Mullen Street. The News Tribune is not naming K2 because he has not been charged with a crime.
Freeman’s trial began with opening statements Oct. 6, and it ended with closing arguments Oct. 15. Among the witnesses who testified was K2. The jury panel began their deliberations the next morning, and according to court records, they reached a verdict in a little more than two-and-a-half hours. They found Freeman not guilty of murder and first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.
Reached by phone Monday, Hogaboam declined to comment on the outcome of the case. A spokesperson for the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office did not immediately have an answer to questions about whether they had asked the Tacoma Police Department to take another look at Schmidt’s homicide now that Freeman has been acquitted.
A spokesperson for the Police Department was not immediately available to comment Monday afternoon.
The shooting occurred in the early hours of the morning, just beyond a pedestrian underpass on the trail where multiple people lived and slept. Schmidt had been a member of that transient community, according to prosecutors, but before the shooting he had been transitioning to stable housing and employment. He’d also bought a motorcycle and was known to drive it through the encampment.
Prosecutors said the conflict between Freeman and Schmidt dated to several months before the July 20, 2024 shooting. It began as a dispute over money, and it escalated as a series of physical confrontations. Three days before the incident, Schmidt sent a message to someone on his phone stating that he had a firearm to protect himself. He apparently was afraid someone with the nickname “Shaggy” would shoot him on sight.
Detectives identified Freeman as “Shaggy.” According to the defense’s trial brief, detectives came to that conclusion based on statements from unidentified individuals who were transient. One woman who spoke with law enforcement claimed that Freeman told her that he was the one who shot Schmidt.
In the trial brief, Hogaboam, wrote that the woman admitted she and Freeman were high on drugs when Freeman made that alleged admission, and Hogaboam said the woman’s statements came months after the shooting.
Freeman was arrested the day after law enforcement spoke with the woman. According to court records, Freeman was initially held on $1.5 million bail. He remained in custody at the Pierce County Jail for the duration of his case until his acquittal.
This story was originally published October 21, 2025 at 5:15 AM.
