Woman killed, her boyfriend seriously injured in shooting

TACOMA, Wash. — Police are investigating after a woman was killed and a man was seriously injured in a shooting in Tacoma early Sunday morning.

Officers responded before 5 a.m. to the 3800 block of East Howe Street after a man called 911 and said his girlfriend had been shot.

Upon arriving at the scene, Tacoma police officers found a 22-year-old woman inside a vehicle and a 23-year-old man nearby who had both been shot.

The woman died at the scene.

The man was taken to the hospital.

He was initially reported to have sustained life-threatening injuries, but his status was updated to serious but stable, according to the Tacoma Police Department.

Residents told KIRO 7 that hearing gunfire is new to the neighborhood.

“I was shocked, but not extremely shocked,” one man said.

“It was fast, it was quick and violent,” said Karl Allen. “I heard the first shot. It was the first shot, It was like bam. Then after that, it was a pause, then bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. Six shots after that.”

“When I looked out the window, an individual was running across the front of my house on the phone. And the individuals collapsed on the parking lot next door to my house,” Allen said.

One of the bullets from the gunfire also pierced a nearby pickup truck owned by a resident.

The fatal shooting comes just days after Mayor Victoria Woodards said in the state of the city address: “Between 2020 and 2021, we saw startling increases in some very visible and impactful crime. Our city was shaken by 31 homicides each year.”

Things could shake up even more as the city’s current homicide rate could reach 50 by the end of the year. Sunday’s fatal shooting is Tacoma’s 10th homicide thus far.

“We cannot keep our community safe without police. They are part of the solution,” Woodards said.

Woodards said public safety correlates to the Tacoma Police Department’s 50 openings and 14% vacancy rate. The vacancy rate is usually at about 4%. Woodards said Tacoma needs more officers, specifically those who reflect its communities.

“Safety means different things to different people. And putting more people on the streets alone doesn’t increase a sense of safety for everyone in our city,” Woodards said.

But for the people living in Tacoma’s McKinley Hill neighborhood, that’s exactly what they want to see.

“Gang violence has increased in this neighborhood. Escalation of drug sales. This perpetuates these types of incidents. If the mayor has that much concern about the areas that have this much violence, put a task force out here. Do something about it,” said Allen.

Tacoma police and Pierce County deputies both said they already do some form of hot-spot policing, focusing more patrols on areas with higher crime rates. However, residents said more needs to be done.

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