Last Monday night 18-year-old Elijah Crawford and two friends were sitting in a car in the 1800 block of East 44th Street a little after 11:30pm. Someone approached the car and opened fire. When police arrived minutes later, they found Elijah had been killed becoming the tenth Tacoma homicide this year. A 20-year-old friend was wounded and taken to a nearby hospital. The third friend was physically uninjured.
Elijah graduated from Lincoln High School earlier and married his high school sweetheart. He was a popular and fun loving student who liked wrestling and photography. It’s genuinely difficult to find a photo where he isn’t smiling. A former teacher of his learned of his death and wrote about Elijah and what Tacoma has lost with his passing. You can read it here. The News Tribune also has an excellent article on Elijah Crawford. Here’s the link for that. (Read it now as their articles are unavailable online after 90 days without a subscription.)
This shooting was one of three within the space of a few hours in Tacoma during Monday night and Tuesday morning. Around 3:40am near North 13th and Lawrence Street a drunk driver fired ten shots at University of Puget Sound security guards thankfully hitting no one. Also around 6:15am this morning 26-year-old Steven Speakman was found with fatal gunshot wounds on S. 10th and Martin Luther King Jr. Way. This is an unusual amount of violence in such a short amount of time.
As always, the comments section is moderated by me and reserved for those who want to share thoughts, memories, and other remembrances of Elijah and his life that was all too short.
At the time of this writing, a suspect has not been arrested or identified.
There is a Peace Walk scheduled for tonight (Saturday November 7th) near where Elijah and his friend were shot. It starts at 5pm at the Family Investment Center Park at 1724 East 44th Street in Salishan.
-Jack Cameron
tacomastories.com 
and now, #11. sadness filling my soul
All I can say about this is My prayers to the victims family are ever present in my heart for you. Blessings
Monday the 9th. At Lincoln Park 530.. there will be a candlelight service for Elijah Crawford. His mother requested she will not be talking to the press. This is a time for the children of the community to grieve and also say few nice words about Elijah. This is open event to bring our community back together..
Thank you for having this here. I was reflecting on Elijah today as I drove through Salishan to see a friend, and I wanted to see his face. Of course, I see him in my mind’s eye much younger. I was his third grade teacher. I remember the same bubbly smile. I resonate with the post from his high school teacher. Thanks for the link. Thanks for keeping it all up. It often takes years to grieve.