Third homicide in a week in Tacoma; homicides still below 2020

Neighbors are tense after a shooting early Saturday morning left a man dead at a homeless encampment on East 38th Street in Tacoma. This is the third homicide in Tacoma since Wednesday and the 23rd so far this year.

The shooting early this Saturday morning was at this homeless encampment here on East 38th Street near East McKinley Avenue.

Both police and residents who live near where these homicides occurred say they are concerned. It now has residents fearing for their safety.

“I don’t know,” said Shelbie Boyd with Tacoma Police. “But I’m sure the people that do are probably in the area. That is a pretty active area when it comes to neighborhood groups and community involvement.”

Just a couple of miles from Saturday’s shooting, a woman’s body was found slumped over the steering wheel of her car on South 47th near South Pine Street on Wednesday.

The next day, the body of a man was found in his car in a business parking lot off Hosmer Street. Both had been shot and killed.

The number of people killed in Tacoma this year is now just one shy of the 24 homicides in 2020.

“And last year, a lot of people believe, or they’ve heard, that it was our record year, and it was not,” Boyd said. “That’s not to say that it wasn’t high. It definitely was.”

The latest shooting happened in an encampment that caught fire last month. Neighbors say it jumped across the freeway entrance and was threatening their homes.

“It’s just every day here,” said Bob Swan, a 40-year resident. “The neighbors, they’re worried. These ones over here, if they knew there was homeless here, they would not have bought the house. And I think it’s bringing our property values down here because of that.”

Tacoma police say they do not have a suspect in this homicide, nor the other two. They would like to hear from anyone with information on the incidents that left three people shot dead in Tacoma this week.