South Sound family identifies shooting victim; suspect turns himself in

We now have family pictures of a 17-year-old girl shot and killed in Tacoma.

The shooting happened Saturday night outside the Midtown Apartment homes on South 15th Street in Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood.

Eyewitnesses say the victim was shot after her father got into an argument with someone else.

Her family has identified the victim as 17-year-old Delayah Sims.

According to Tacoma police, the alleged shooter turned himself in Tuesday afternoon.

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Delayah Sims

Her death has hit this community hard, largely because it all went down right here. A neighbor told us the teen was shot and staggered backwards until she made it to some Cherry Blossom trees.

That is where she fell to the ground, mortally wounded.

It seemed to take all the strength her grieving family could muster to return to the place where 17-year-old Delayah Sims lived and where she was shot.

“I just heard her screaming and I went to look outside,” said a young female neighbor and eyewitness who asked not to be identified.

She said she heard Delayah cry out for help.

“She was just screaming, ‘I got shot, I got shot, I got shot,’” she said.

Soon, the teenager was calling for her mother.

“She was screaming for her mom,” her neighbor said. “And I think she knew she was gonna die. Because she was screaming, ‘I’m gonna die. I’m gonna die.’”

Tacoma police say she was shot at about 8:20 Saturday night. She was taken by private car to a nearby hospital, where she later died.

Tacoma Police Det. William Muse was asked if an argument preceded the shooting.

“We’re still trying to get information on that at this particular point in time,” he said. “But to the best of our knowledge, what we’ve learned in the investigation so far is the victim and the alleged suspect knew each other.”

But an eyewitness, who also didn’t want his identity revealed, said a neighbor’s Ring camera recorded the victim’s father arguing with someone just before shots rang out.

“And that’s when you could hear the loud voice from the father,” he said. “But soon afterwards is when it happened.”

The shooting has left so much grief in its wake.

“To me,” said her young female neighbor, “it’s like shocking that like somebody can be here one moment and then like gone the next.”

Two of her aunts told KIRO 7 off camera that Delayah turned 17 on March 2nd. Sadly, her family is no stranger to violence. Her 18-year-old brother was also shot and killed in 2018.

Now her family has started a GoFundMe account to pay for her funeral.

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