Tacoma teen sentenced for shooting outside Lincoln High School
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Teen pleaded guilty to first-degree assault and received six years in state custody.
- Shooting outside Lincoln High School injured a 16-year-old boy.
- Judge accepted plea deal, reduced sentence due to no prior record and mitigating facts.
A teenager who shot and injured a 16-year-old boy outside Lincoln High School in Tacoma during the last week of school before summer break was sentenced Monday to six years in state custody.
Pierce County prosecutors charged Dar’shawn P. Williams-Thomas as an adult in the shooting. He pleaded guilty to first-degree assault in Superior Court.
Judge Joseph Evans gave Williams-Thomas, 17, an exceptional sentence below the standard range of about 12 to 15 years as part of a plea bargain between prosecutors and the defense, according to court records. Prosecutors and the defense recommended a seven-year sentence, but Evans imposed six years.
Williams-Thomas had no prior criminal history, and facts discovered while the case was pending mitigated the seriousness of his conduct, deputy prosecuting attorney Brian Best noted in a court filing about the defendant’s amended charges. An unlawful firearm possession charge was dropped as part of the plea agreement.
It’s unclear what specific facts of the incident prosecutors believed lessened the gravity of Williams-Thomas’ conduct. But in a sentencing memorandum, the defendant’s attorney described prior conflicts between Williams-Thomas and the victim. The attorney also said the defendant was concerned for his safety when he fired the gunshots.
The June 17 shooting occurred just after the school day ended and sent bystanders running. Lincoln High School also went into a modified lockdown after 911 was called.
Williams-Thomas, who was 16 at the time and a student at the school, had previous disagreements with the victim online, according to a sentencing memorandum authored by Harley Hunner, the defendant’s attorney from the Department of Assigned Counsel. She said the victim had also previously threatened to fight Williams-Thomas.
Williams-Thomas was talking with a friend outside the school when the other teen approached and motioned for Williams-Thomas to follow him, according to Hunner. Williams-Thomas followed him down the sidewalk, and the victim walked into the road between two cars.
“As Mr. Williams-Thomas followed [the victim], he realized there was at least one more of [the victim’s] friends waiting for him in the roadway,” Hunner wrote. “Concerned for his safety, Mr. Williams-Thomas pulled out a gun and fired two shots, striking [the victim] once in the buttocks.”
The two teenagers fled in opposite directions. Surveillance video showed Williams-Thomas discarding his backpack and sweatshirt and changing his pants in an empty lot about a block south of the school, according to court documents. Police also found a .25-caliber pistol near 39th Street and Yakima Avenue with a bullet in its chamber that matched shell casings at the shooting scene.
The teen Williams-Thomas shot fell and broke his arm, according to court records. He went to Buddy’s Chicken & Waffles, where he and an employee called 911. A Tacoma Public Schools spokesperson previously told The News Tribune the teen was enrolled in the district earlier in the year but wasn’t a student at the time of the incident.
Williams-Thomas’ JROTC instructor at Lincoln High School and a coach at Federal Way High School wrote letters to the court ahead of his sentencing. The JROTC instructor said Williams-Thomas had been in the program since 2022, and he had seen Williams-Thomas grow into an exceptional young leader.
The Federal Way coach said Williams-Thomas was a dedicated member of their football program through middle school and high school. The coach said he didn’t want to minimize the gravity of Williams-Thomas’ actions, but he believed the teen deserved to learn from his mistake and put his life on the positive trajectory he was on before the incident.
“A lengthy prison sentence at this critical juncture could derail all the promise and potential that this young man possesses,” the coach wrote.
In Washington, young people sentenced for crimes committed before they are 18 go to juvenile rehabilitation in the custody of the Department of Children, Youth and Families until age 25, when they would transfer to the Department of Corrections.
This story was originally published December 24, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
