Tacoma Police investigating 2 ‘suspicious' deaths
The Tacoma Police Department is investigating what they are calling two 'suspicious' deaths.
Officers were called to an area on St. Paul Ave. near Tacoma Marine Repair for reports of an unresponsive man and woman.
Both people were pronounced dead when first responders arrived.
Detectives are investigating the incident as a 'suspicious' death.
It's unclear if the man and woman were out in the open or in a building or vehicle.
KIRO 7 has reached out to Tacoma Police for more information.
The medical examiner will determine their cause and manner of death.
If the death is determined to be a homicide, it'll be the third and fourth in Tacoma in 10 days. An 18-year-old was killed after getting shot in the chest on Valentine's Day and another man was found dead on Feb. 11. A suspect has been arrested in the Feb. 11 homicide.
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Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Rock Falls murder victim's father wants police chief to resign, says chief to blame for investigative errors
Jun. 13—ROCK FALLS — The father of a Rock Falls man murdered in that city Feb. 14 wants the Rock Falls police chief to resign after the department's officers testified that several protocol violations were committed during their investigation of the murder scene. "This can't stand. It can't be allowed to continue. There will be more murders in Rock Falls. There will be more violent crime in Rock Falls. People are not getting better to each other." — Dan Gordon, father of murder victim DJ Gordon "This falls directly on leadership. If I were in charge of a group of people that screwed up on the basics this I was there, and they screwed up this bad, I would have enough integrity to resign," Dan Gordon, father of Daniel "DJ" Gordon, who was killed Feb. 14 in Rock Falls, said in a June 10 interview with Shaw Local. "That's what I think Rock Falls Police Chief David Pilgrim deserves to do is resign," he said. After being called to the 600 block of West 20th Street in Rock Falls, first responders and police found DJ Gordon, 27, in the early morning hours of Feb. 14 unresponsive and suffering multiple abdominal stab wounds. The accused, Kyle Cooper, 36, of Rock Falls, admitted to the stabbing May 22, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of second-degree murder and was given the maximum 20-year sentence. But in the days after the stabbing, Cooper was originally charged with one count of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated battery in connection with Gordon's death. The case was headed toward trial until May 14, when Cooper's defense attorney, Jim Mertes of Sterling, announced a plea agreement had been reached. [ Rock Falls man pleads guilty to second-degree murder, sentenced to 20 years for fatal Valentine's Day stabbing ] Attorneys announced that agreement in court after Mertes, during court hearings leading up to the trial date, made several arguments in an effort to discredit the Rock Falls Police Department's investigation. "I stand by our investigation. I stand by the work of the investigators," Pilgrim, who was named chief in February 2021, told Shaw Local this week. "I don't believe there were any, what I would call fatal issues with the investigation." [ Prosecutor: Rock Falls man accused of Valentine's Day murder had history of threatening exes' new partners ] He said Mertes' arguments about issues with the investigation were a "defense strategy" and that he doesn't believe Mertes' claims "had any basis and anything that was argued in those motions did not ultimately affect the outcome of the investigation." At the May 14 court hearing, Rock Falls Police Detective Autumn Day, the lead homicide investigator on the case, testified that the vehicle that transported Gordon to the location where he was killed and was parked within the cordoned-off crime scene area was not searched or processed for evidence when it should have been. Pilgrim said the vehicle "was not processed as part of the crime scene. Nothing was alleged to have occurred in or on that vehicle. It was determined by the investigators that the vehicle was not of evidentiary value." Day's testimony, along with that of Rock Falls Police Officer Dustin Sugars and Sgt. Betony Gluff, who both took the stand May 9, indicated that evidence preservation protocol was violated at the scene when the driver of that vehicle was allowed inside it after police arrived and the area had been cordoned off. Day also testified May 14 that a log of activity, which lists who enters and leaves a crime scene during an investigation, was not created when it should have been and that witnesses were allowed into the crime scene when they should not have been. [ Rock Falls murder trial pushed to Thursday by lead detective's illness, ongoing pretrial motion discussions ] "The stuff that they've messed up on is basic police 101," Dan Gordon said. "I can't stress enough I don't hold the officers and the detectives accountable. This is on management." "There's absolutely zero accountability for the mistakes that were made," he said. Dan Gordon said that Whiteside County State's Attorney Colleen Buckwalter "was going to sit down and talk to the Rock Falls Police Department," but he didn't know if that happened yet. Buckwalter declined Shaw Local's request for comment. "There's been zero things happen, even additional training," Dan Gordon said. He said Buckwalter sent Whiteside County Sheriff John Booker to visit him "to explain to me how bad the Rock Falls Police Department screwed up." Booker told Shaw Local that "as an officer of 34 years, I saw some things [in the investigation] that I would've done differently." "We definitely need to learn from this," Booker said, adding that everybody makes mistakes, but "we need to not make them twice." "I don't want to slam the Rock Falls Police Department. I think they are some of the highest character people that you're going to find," but "when you have poor leadership, no amount of character is going to override that," Dan Gordon said. "Nobody was in charge of the crime scene. The highest ranking official should be in charge," he said. Booker said that if Whiteside County deputies are conducting an investigation and "I'm on the scene, I'm the highest ranking official, I'm in charge and any mistakes that are made fall on me," he said. "Everything comes back to who's running it." Rock Falls Mayor Rod Kleckler told Shaw Local that he, with the consent of the Rock Falls City Council, has the power to fire the police chief, but, he said, that would be a personnel issue that "I wouldn't talk about with anyone." At most jobs, personnel issues are typically private matters, but "in this situation, it kind of is our business. The people of Rock Falls are not getting what they pay for right now," Dan Gordon said. For the victim's family, the investigators' admissions "came to light on the Friday before Mother's Day (May 9)," Dan Gordon said. Mother's Day "was gonna suck bad enough with DJ being gone, but now not knowing what amount of justice we're even going to be able to get," Dan Gordon said. "DJ deserved better. He just did." When Day testified May 14, Mertes' questions alluded to her being assigned as the lead homicide investigator, something that he said was done before she had obtained state-required certification. During that questioning, Day affirmed that Pilgrim was at the scene as officers were investigating. Day said Pilgrim told her at the scene that she was not lead investigator. She completed the state-required training Feb. 28 and was named lead investigator March 3, Day said. She said the investigation was assigned to Deputy Chief Doug Wolber on the day of the offense. It was then assigned to Detective Sgt. Jeremy Vondra and, then, once Day completed the required lead homicide investigator training "she was considered the lead investigator," but "there was no formal assignment of the case" to Day, Pilgrim said. "Initially, when the case started, it was an aggravated battery. It wasn't until the victim had ultimately passed away that it became a homicide investigation," Pilgrim said. But according to Dan Gordon, "DJ was dead when the ambulance got there. They brought him back so we could say goodbye basically. He was gone. Don't tell me you didn't go in as a homicide." "Detective Day got put in a bad position," Dan Gordon said. "Why would you assign the detective with the least amount of experience who wasn't even homicide certified?" Day was hired at Rock Falls PD in 2018. Sugars was hired in 2016, Gluff in 2011, Wolber in 2006 and Vondra in 2003, according to the department's annual report. Rock Falls police "can't afford to have a 'Oh this is a slam dunk' attitude, because it's not. Clearly it's not," Dan Gordon said. "Nobody from the Rock Falls Police Department has even reached out to me at all. I don't know if they should or not. I've never had a kid murdered before," he said, adding that he's spoken to Pilgrim and Wolber, but he "had to call them." On May 12, the victim's family met with Buckwalter to negotiate a plea agreement and agreed to Mertes' offer of the lesser second-degree charge after learning about the "immediate passion" law that would most likely prevent them from securing a conviction of first-degree murder if they were to go to trial, Dan Gordon said. [ Rock Falls man's murder trial canceled day before jury selection when attorneys announce plea deal ] "Honestly, I don't think Rock Falls Police Department's errors, blunders, affected the outcome. I think that the facts of the case probably did not support first-degree murder," he said. "I would much rather him [Cooper] never have the possibility of ever getting out," but "I am at peace with the fact that that was as good as we were going to get given the circumstances," Dan Gordon said. Whiteside County Judge James Heuerman sentenced Cooper on May 22 to the terms laid out in the plea agreement — the maximum possible sentence of 20 years, one year of supervised release and credit for 97 days served. Dan Gordon said he's not asking Pilgrim to resign "for us. DJ is just as dead, regardless of who is the chief of police in Rock Falls." "It's for the next family, the next victims," Dan Gordon said. "This can't stand. It can't be allowed to continue. There will be more murders in Rock Falls. There will be more violent crime in Rock Falls. People are not getting better to each other."
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Tacoma ex-deputy police chief had ‘pattern of disrespect' to women, inquiry says
The Tacoma Police Department's former deputy chief, Paul Junger, wasn't fired for one egregious incident, an investigation report shows, but because of consistent demeaning behavior that created a hostile work environment for women. One instance, in which Junger downgraded a patrol officer's punishment for creating a meme that disrespected his commanding officer and three other women, was described as appearing to be part of a 'pattern of disrespect' to women. That pattern included belittling comments Junger made to Assistant Chief Crystal Young-Haskins, who brought a Human Resources complaint against him in November, weeks after she reported his behavior to former Police Chief Avery Moore. It also entailed questioning her judgment in front of her peers, interrupting her in meetings, not accepting her advice but taking it from men and undermining Young-Haskins by offering support to her in private but then withdrawing it in public. One witness said Junger's treatment was 'death by a thousand cuts.' Those are some of the findings outlined in a March 26 report authored by an attorney with the Seattle-based law firm Ryan, Swanson & Cleveland, PLLC detailing an investigation into Junger's behavior in the workplace. The 21-page report was released to The News Tribune through a public records request with some redactions. It determined that allegations of a hostile work environment and gender discrimination were true. Interim Police Chief Patti Jackson chose to terminate Junger's employment March 31 based on the external investigation. 'The evidence provided by [redacted] and other witnesses was of numerous incidents, actions and comments, most of which if taken individually would be considered unpleasant, derogatory and/or inappropriate, but would not, taken alone, constitute a hostile work environment,' the report states. 'However, the events and actions must be considered together, to show the 'totality of the circumstances.'' Junger did not respond to a request for comment about the investigation Tuesday. The report notes that after he returned to work from administrative leave last year, he apologized to several people individually for the way he had treated them. 'Junger explained that his leadership style is building trust and relationships, and so after being placed on administrative leave he felt this was the appropriate way to try and rebuild relationships with individuals in the department,' the report states. The witnesses who spoke to the investigator about the apologies were all Black women, according to the report, and several described it as an 'apology tour.' Most thought it was too little, too late, but one said Junger's apology felt sincere. As deputy chief and the department's second in command, Junger was responsible for assisting in the overall direction of the department's internal operations. He reported to the chief of police, and the department's three assistant chiefs reported to him. According to The News Tribune's salary database, his total pay in 2023 was $272,455.60 Young-Haskins also did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Although it was Young-Haskins who filed a complaint with the city's HR department, the investigator described how multiple women were subjected to discriminatory behavior. According to the report, three women who left the Police Department tied their departures, in part, to how Junger treated them. 'A witness who left the department after 35 years told me that she was treated extremely disrespectfully and condescendingly by Junger, including an incident where he was angry about something she and AC [redacted] had done, and he approached them, pointing his finger and saying 'You. Down the hall. NOW.'' Young-Haskins now leads the Investigations Bureau for the Police Department. She came to Tacoma in summer 2022 from Little Rock, Arkansas, where she served as the city's interim police chief. Junger joined the Tacoma Police Department around the same time from the Dallas Police Department, where he worked with Moore. Young-Haskins complained of Junger's harassing behavior about two years after she began working in Tacoma, but her emailed report to HR said the hostile work environment began shortly after she was hired. She said she feared coming forward about Junger because she wanted to be a team player and of a desire to do her job to the best of her ability. Not all of Young-Haskins' allegations about Junger were substantiated by workplace investigation. The claim that Junger engaged in race discrimination was not sustained, and allegations of age discrimination and that he retaliated against Young-Haskins were deemed to be unfounded. The report said it was difficult to determine whether race played a factor in Junger's treatment of employees, noting that the treatment was directed toward a white woman as well as several Black women, but it wasn't directed toward all white women in the department. Instead, the treatment seemed directed toward women who reported directly to Junger, and it appeared more aligned with gender differences. One man interviewed for the investigation recalled a time when Junger referred to the women assistant chiefs as 'the girls' in a private meeting in 2024 where no women were present. A man also reported that Junger commented to him that one of the women assistant chiefs wasn't really sick when she called out of work for a sick day. Young-Haskins reported that Junger gave her unequal treatment for her use of leave. The investigation found examples of male employees receiving less scrutiny for leave requests, and it described one incident that escalated to Junger contacting a deputy city attorney. That incident appears to have prompted Young-Haskins to report Junger's behavior to the police chief. In October 2024, according to the report, Young-Haskins was scheduled to attend a conference that required her to travel from Seattle to Boston. Her leave request was for the dates of the conference, Oct. 18-22, but she didn't include time needed to travel to and from the conference, which required an extra day before it started and after it ended. Young-Haskins notified the person who was covering for her that she needed the extra time, and she sent a memo via email about the correct dates of her absence, which Junger received, according to the report. On Oct. 23, while Young-Haskins was on her flight out of Boston, Junger emailed and texted her to ask her if she would be attending the one-on-one meeting they had scheduled that day. Young-Haskins tried to respond to the text, but it didn't go through, according to the report, and she wasn't able to respond to him until her plane landed hours later. When Junger was interviewed about that for the investigation, he said he believed Young-Haskins was 'AWOL' or absent without leave. According to the report, he repeatedly questioned her about the absence and talked to the deputy city attorney assigned to the Police Department. Young-Haskins asserted that Junger was being unreasonable and treating her differently than her male counterparts. 'She noted that when Junger did not know where one of his team members were, he would ask around, but never implied or stated that the person was AWOL,' the report states. When Junger was interviewed, he said he relied on the dates in the leave request, and, when she was absent, he was concerned. The day after Young-Haskins got back from Boston, she reported to Moore that she felt Junger had created a hostile work environment and subjected her to unlawful harassment, according to her email to HR. An embarrassing image depicting a caricature of Young-Haskins and three other women in the department was another subject of Junger's investigation because of his decision to downgrade the punishment of the patrol officer who made it. The investigation doesn't show the meme or describe it in detail, but an internal investigation about it reportedly found it was offensive to women and constituted insubordination toward one of the women it depicted. 'The creator of the meme was unapologetic about it and stated the women deserved it,' according to the report. A bureau-level reprimand was recommended for the patrol officer, which stays on file for five years. Typically the decision of whether to discipline an officer and how severe that punishment should be is up to the police chief, but Moore was on leave when the investigation concluded. Junger was entitled to make the decision himself as acting chief in the meantime, and he decided to instead give the officer who created the meme an oral reprimand, which stays on file for one year instead of five. That outcome 'surprised and upset' two people interviewed for Junger's workplace investigation. One said Junger's actions indicated the department doesn't support women in leadership. Another said his actions were a 'slap in the face.' Junger said he believed the five-year reprimand was too harsh, and he considered the fact that the patrol officer didn't have any prior disciplinary matters. Junger also said the officer would have to take some form of training, which he felt was consistent with the department's progressive discipline policy.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Sean 'Diddy' Combs trial recap: Ex-girlfriend 'Jane' faces more cross-examination, says she initiated some 'hotel nights'
The trial of Sean 'Diddy' Combs continued Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, with 'Jane' — a pseudonym for an alleged victim and ex-girlfriend of Combs — returning to the witness stand for a fifth day of testimony in the high-profile sex trafficking case. Federal prosecutors say that for decades, Combs abused, threatened and coerced women to participate in drug-fueled marathon sexual encounters called 'freak offs' and used his business empire, along with guns, kidnapping and arson, to conceal his crimes. In direct testimony, Jane tearfully recounted the 'freak offs'— which she called 'hotel nights' — telling the court that she felt obligated to 'perform' sex acts for Combs with other men because he was paying her rent. She also testified about a brutal assault she endured before Combs ordered her to cover up her injuries and take ecstasy for an impromptu 'hotel night.' Facing more cross-examination by the defense on Wednesday, Jane told the court that she initiated some of the encounters, including one in which she hired two men. She appeared emotional while reading texts she sent to Combs in 2023, calling him a 'blessing' and saying she was grateful that he was taking care of her financially. Combs's defense team said it will finish Jane's cross-examination Thursday morning. The 55-year-old hip-hop mogul is facing five criminal counts: one count of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. Combs has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he could face life in prison. Here are some key takeaways from Wednesday's testimony culled from various reporters and news organizations in the courtroom, including CNN, NBC News and the Washington Post. Before Jane's testimony got underway, Judge Arun Subramanian listened to arguments over a prosecution request to dismiss one of the jurors for reasons that have not yet been made public. Prosecutor Maurene Comey told Subramanian that the government was initially reluctant to ask for the removal of juror no. 6, but has since concluded the juror appears to have shown 'a lack of candor with the court that raises serious issues.' Defense attorney Alexandra Shapiro objected, saying it was a 'thinly veiled effort to dismiss a Black juror.' Subramanian said he would handle the issue on Thursday after hearing in writing from both sides. Under cross-examination by the defense, Jane acknowledged that she once threatened to not participate in a 'hotel night' with Combs for Valentine's Day 2022 after she saw social media posts of him on vacation with another woman. She demanded that he leave the vacation a day early and return to her. When he agreed, she planned the 'hotel night,' decorating the room with rose petals and hiring two male entertainers to have sex with her while Combs watched. Jane testified that it was her idea to have the two men in the room with her at the same time. 'Yes, that was my suggestion,' Jane said in court, adding that Combs was 'excited about that.' In late August 2022, Jane testified that she told Combs how much she appreciated the sexual encounters after a hotel night with him and a sex worker named Paul. Jane texted Combs that she's 'having so much fun' and she would 'never take this for granted and will always make sure you are taken care of.' Big picture: The defense is seeking to refute the prosecution's claims that the alleged victims were coerced by Combs into participating in the marathon sexual encounters by showing they were willing participants. Having Jane acknowledge that she arranged a 'hotel night' with two men, and later saying she was having 'fun' is part of that effort. On the witness stand, Jane read text messages she sent to Combs in April 2023 after a hotel night, right around the time she moved into a rented Los Angeles home, which Combs is currently paying for. 'The fact that you are the reason for my child's joy is a feeling inside me that I can't explain,' Jane read, tearing up. 'You are truly a blessing in my life, I have never had a man take care of me like you do,' Jane continued. 'You are my lover, my partner, my boyfriend,' she wrote.
