Tacoma sees surge in killings among kids. Have teens hit a ‘breaking point'?

Yahoo

01-05-2025

A spike in Tacoma homicides, particularly among young people, has residents and city leaders concerned. Youth violence rates have fluctuated in recent years, but one Tacoman who works with young people says kids have reached a breaking point.
The city has recorded four homicides among people 18 and under since the start of the year, double the number that occurred by this time last year. Violence has been particularly bad in the Eastside neighborhood of Salishan, where three shootings have been reported since April 20 when Mount Tahoma High School junior Veron Lockett was shot and killed.
Overall, the homicide rate in Tacoma is slightly up. There have been 10 homicides in the city as of April 30, two more than this time last year.
Janette Simon, general manager of the Salishan Association told The News Tribune that the neighborhood group is 'deeply saddened' by the tragic events. Simon said the association is working closely with the Tacoma Police Department to schedule a town hall meeting to support neighbors and hear their concerns.
'The Salishan Association stands with the community during this difficult time and acknowledges the fear and grief that these incidents have caused,' Simon said. 'We would like to emphasize the importance of community dialogue and support to address these issues and promote safety.'
Officer Shelbie Boyd, a spokesperson for the Police Department, said police so far don't have any information indicating that the three shootings in the Salishan neighborhood are connected. Asked about the increase in youth homicides compared to last year, Boyd said any homicide is concerning. She said police have been dealing with surges in youth-related violence for the past couple years.
Boyd noted that young people aren't only becoming victims of violence, in some cases police are identifying youth as suspects. Two 16-year-old boys and two 15-year-old boys have been arrested and charged with murder in the Feb. 22 fatal shooting of 18-year-old Messiah Washington. And a 15-year-old has been arrested and charged with murder in connection to the Feb. 14 homicide of 18-year-old Kadony Robbins.
'It's a complex issue, right? So we're committed to addressing it with every tool available,' Boyd said. 'A part of that is enforcement, it's the intervention and then the prevention of it. I know that we've reached out to schools, and we've reached out to the community, and there's some meetings taking place.'
Antonio McLemore is the supervisor of the Eastside Community Center, one of 12 locations the City of Tacoma used last year for its Summer Teen Late Nights program, which provided supervised spaces for young people to spend time with other kids. He's also done mentorship work with young men through the Tacoma Urban League.
'Our youth have been hurting for a while,' McLemore said. 'I think the pain that our young people have been experiencing for a long time, I think it's just reached, obviously, its breaking point.'
McLemore described how problems like youth access to guns and conflicts between kids are nothing new, but other issues like the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, social media, struggling parents and a breakdown in community involvement are leading to more violent outcomes.
'The breakdown of our community, the breakdown of our families, the breakdown of churches, all these things are a part of disconnecting young people from the caring adults that were critical from dismantling the youth violence that we see in our schools today,' McLemore said.
In a public Facebook post last week, Tacoma School Board President Korey Strozier asked parents, guardians and caregivers to be nosy and ask hard questions of their children.
'Check the backpacks, the group chats, the late-night plans,' Strozier wrote. 'Even when they push you away — push in closer.'
Strozier said two students in Tacoma Public Schools had been lost to gun violence in one week. He said he was hurting just as others were, but he also wanted to make a call to families, city leaders, organizations, neighbors and mentors to 'dig in' and make a coordinated effort to build a safety net around young people.
Tacoma City Council member Sandesh Sadalge represents District 4, which covers the Eastside and Salishan area. He told The News Tribune on Monday that he was 'devastated' to hear about the deaths and shootings.
'Even one victim of violence is too much,' he said.
Sadalge said he wants to concentrate, policy-wise, on long-term preventative solutions.
'I'm really proud that despite our budget shortfall last year, we prioritize and continue to fund crime prevention in a myriad of programs,' he said.
About $444 million of Tacoma's budget has been invested into community safety, which makes up 64 percent of the city's General Fund expenses, according to the current biennial budget.
Community safety prioritizes providing essential emergency services, court services, safe infrastructure and increases 'positive perception of safety and overall quality of life,' according to the budget.
In recent years, the city has directed millions of dollars into contracts with service providers who provide programming to combat youth violence and increase opportunities for young people to thrive.
'It's an absolute problem when even elementary school kids understand how important and how big an issue this is in my area,' Saldage said.
McLemore doesn't believe this latest surge in violence is over. Police haven't announced any arrests in Lockett's death or the April 12 homicide of 16-year-old Marco Teran, who was shot in the 4200 block of Portland Avenue East. McLemore said he's heard that retaliations are happening.
'Violence begets violence. It's a vicious cycle,' McLeMore said.
McLemore said he typically gets calls from people when gatherings are happening in response to spikes in violence. He hasn't been getting those same calls in recent days, something he attributed to people being in 'survival mode.'
Last week, Tacoma resident DeQuin Evans channeled some of his feelings about the shootings into words of wisdom for the young people he coaches through Gridiron Sports + Performance, where he mentors young people through sports.
Evans said many of the young people he works with come from broken homes, and they have friends who have been killed in recent shootings. Over the weekend, he said, he was getting text messages from kids who weren't sure if they wanted to play football anymore because of the trauma they were dealing with.
A video of Evans' speech to his players at a recent practice was posted to Instagram. In it, he said he's tired of seeing young people like him and his players die prematurely, and he encouraged them to pursue their careers to make their families proud. Evans is Black and Samoan, and he said most of the kids he works with come from similar backgrounds.
Asked what drove him to do the video, Evans became emotional.
'Because I don't want to lose none of them,' Evans said. 'These are like my kids' big brothers.'
'You find whatever vehicle you have, it doesn't have to be sports, it could be pursuing your education, whatever you have a desire to do,' Evans added. 'Even if you have to work a nine to five, find a way to give back to a younger version of yourself so you can add value to his life.'