When Tacoma was a murder capital, ‘moments of blessing’ helped reclaim it. They’re back
In 1998, Tacoma was emerging from an era of violence and death that had come to define it. Throughout the late 1980s and much of the ‘90s, murders soared.
Fueled by gangs, guns and the territorial drug trade, the City of Destiny became synonymous with rampant crime and danger. Hilltop, in particular, was infamous.
The Rev. David Alger, executive director of Associated Ministries of Tacoma-Pierce County at the time, wanted to take a stand. The nonprofit was relatively new to Hilltop, having relocated to South 13th and I Street less than a decade earlier.
Alger, with help from the local faith community, felt compelled to make a simple but necessary statement, at least in his mind: Everyone matters, and no death should go unnoticed.
Alger described what he envisioned as “moments of blessing.”
For roughly 20 years, whenever someone was murdered, local ministers would gather at the crime scene with anyone who cared to show up, reclaiming one tiny slice of Tacoma from violence and brutality at a time.
Then, in 2017, Tacoma’s moments blessing ceased with little fanfare or recognition. Times had changed. The murder rate declined and mostly stayed down.
The hope, even when unspoken, was for the dawning of a new, less-violent chapter.
Yet, there Ed Jacobs stood on Wednesday afternoon, under the freeway.
There he was, in his white clerical attire, ringing his bell, speaking an unknown victim’s name into existence.
There he was, providing the latest evidence of a city once again consumed by senseless trauma.
Jacobs, a 69-year-old chaplain already known for honoring people who have died while homeless, decided to bring moments of blessing back to Tacoma, he recently told me.
With a group of like-minded local faith leaders spanning denominations, they’ll solemnly commemorate every killing, he said.
Through a cloud of diesel exhaust and a break in the rain, Jacobs led a small service for a man the Pierce County Medical Examiner identified as Robert Grace.
Grace was stabbed and killed in a tent just like the row of makeshift shelters Jacobs stood before. He died in relative anonymity on Dec. 27.
A local funeral home recently posted an obituary honoring a deceased individual with the same name, age and date of birth — born and raised in Tacoma, the fourth oldest of eight children — but the match can’t be confirmed. Attempts by The News Tribune to reach Grace’s family were unsuccessful.
In 2023, there were 34 homicides in Tacoma, down from a record high the previous year of 45.
Across Pierce County, there were a total of 58 last year. Eighty-three percent were the result of shootings, The News Tribune reported earlier this week.
Grace’s murder was the last recorded during the 2023 calendar year, records indicate.
With a local vicar by his side, Jacobs used a small amplifier to lift his words above the din of interstate traffic.
“We gather in this time of grief, acknowledging the tragic death of Robert Grace, confessing that this tragedy is in part a failure to create a safe community that is humane, compassionate and just,” Jacobs told a small group of mourners that had gathered.
“Robert was entering a tent — one of these tents back here — and someone stabbed him and took his life,” Jacobs said moments later, during a portion of the proceeding reserved for sharing thoughts and memories.
“Beyond that, we have no information,” Jacobs added, “other than he … died while homeless.”
A prayer, Litany of Deliverance, was then recited. With guidance from handouts he’d provided, Jacobs encouraged the handful on hand to respond to each line accordingly, “Save us, O God.”
The vicar, 72-year-old Jim Warnock, used a gold aspergillum to bless the underpass with water.
According to Jacobs, the moments of blessing are designed to reclaim a crime scene as “a place of hope and community.”
“Every human being has dignity. Everyone has value. So many people die alone — and unremembered,” Warnock said later, putting the power and importance of the memorials in his own words.
Warnock is one of roughly five local clergy members, spanning denominations, who have joined Jacobs in his campaign of remembrance, he said. They call themselves “Street Chaplains.”
More than two decades ago, Alger described a similar motivation for bringing moments of blessing to Tacoma.
Local clergy signed on the same way, an article by longtime News Tribune reporter Steve Maynard suggests, because the violence was too much and the community desperately needed a way to move forward.
“This is about healing, wholeness and life affirmation,” Alger told the newspaper.
“It’s about the community reclaiming spaces of death and violence as places of hope.”
On Wednesday, just after lunchtime, a set of tall, wooden poles were hauled by hand from an empty parking lot to the spot where Grace was killed late last month.
Since the beginning, the posts — traditionally known as memorial staves — have been carried by clergy at the moment of blessing services, each adorned with a red ribbon bearing the name of a single victim. Over the years, they multiplied.
Today, tattered ribbons flow from the staves. It took four people to carry them from a nearby parking lot to the spot where Robert Grace died. His name is now among the memorialized.
Michael Yoder, the current executive director of Associated Ministries, took the poles out of storage for this week’s moment of blessing, he explained.
Back in 1998, Tacoma took a stand against murder and violence, Yoder told me. Moments of blessing played a part in that, he believes.
Yoder said he’s grateful Jacobs has picked up the torch, because the city needs the same thing today.
Tacoma is hurting. People are dying. Pain and violence surround us.
There’s so much work to be done, Yoder told me.
There’s so much to reclaim.
“When the community has come together and said, ‘Enough is enough’ — using the means it has, whether it’s presence ministry, showing up, praying or advocating for change — change has happened. I think it’s time to redeploy some of those things,” Yoder said.
“Instead of it being a place of sadness, loss and death, we reclaim it. As a community, we take a stand for justice and declare, ‘Never again,’” he added, vehicles speeding by behind him.
“Otherwise, the violence stays in the shadows — unredeemed.”
This story was originally published January 19, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
