TACOMA, Wash. — Tacoma police said a 21-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the homicide of a 24-year-old mother of three. That mother has been identified as Elisia Simpson, who loved ones call “CeCe.”
The suspect, the boyfriend of the victim, was taken into custody at about 8:20 p.m. Wednesday, Tacoma police spokesperson Wendy Haddow said. The suspect was booked into the Pierce County Jail on a domestic violence murder charge. He’ll have his first appearance Friday afternoon.
The suspect is also facing a charge of aggravated assault of a child. However, Haddow clarified that the children of Simpson were unharmed.
On Tuesday, the woman was found dead in an apartment. At around 9:57 a.m., police responded to a welfare check at the Pacific Manor Apartments in the 7600 block of Pacific Avenue in Tacoma.
According to police, three young children called out to neighbors from their balcony that their mother was dead.
“I was scared for the kids because who wants to hear a little 5-year-old say something like that,” said a neighbor named Amanda. “Honestly, I felt like my heart broke. I felt so bad.”
Police said the children’s mother had been shot and killed. Officers believe the children were inside the apartment when their mother was shot to death.
The children – ages 2, 3 and 5 – were unharmed and were placed into protective custody.
“She loved her kids so much. And she loved music. She loved her family and she was loved. She didn’t deserve what this person did to her. The kids didn’t deserve to be in the presence of what was done to her. And whoever did it needs to be held accountable,” Thalia Simpson, the victim’s mother, said.
Thalia set up a gofundme page to help pay for funeral costs, as well as buy some new items for her grandkids. She worries that items from their home may remind them of what they witnessed.
“I know that every officer that has responded to this scene is grateful that the children are unharmed — physically, anyway,” Haddow said.