Monthly Archives: December 2019

16th and 17th Tacoma Homicides of 2019: Antoine Jamir Holmes and Rigoberto Villagomez-Dillon

Posted on December 22, 2019 | Leave a comment
Rigoberto Villagomez-Dillon
Antoine Jamir Holmes

On the night of August 13th, the familiar sound of gun fire could be heard around midnight near East 38th Street and East Roosevelt Avenue. When the gunfire stopped, five people had been shot. One, 26-year-old Antoine Jamir Holmes was dead when authorities arrived. Another, 19-year-old Rigoberto Villagomez-Dillon would die later at St. Joseph’s hospital. Two teenage girls and one woman were also treated with non-life-threatening injuries.

Antoine and Rigoberto are the sixteenth and seventeenth Tacoma homicides this year. I was not able to find much information about either individual nor was I able to find out details about the shooting. This is due to a combination of factors. Some people do not have much of an online presence. Since there has been no arrest in this case, there are no charging documents detailing the event. And sadly, when it’s a shooting on Tacoma’s East Side, the media tends to treat it as unimportant and spend little time focusing on it.

This shooting was part of an increase in gang violence in recent months. There was at least one additional shooting that left a person paralyzed in what is thought to be retaliation for this shooting. It’s easy for some to dismiss gang violence as something that is far removed from their lives, but the truth is that our connection to gang violence is far closer than we might think.

While I cannot say much about the victims, I can say that they have family and friends who will never be the same in the wake of these killings. What is a forgotten headline in last summer’s newspaper will remain a life altering event in the lives of some.

As always the comments section is reserved for those who knew the victims and want to share thoughts or memories of them.
– Jack

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15th Tacoma Homicide of 2019: Lawrence Jeffries

Posted on December 15, 2019 | 1 comment

Lawrence Jeffries

38-year-old Lawrence Jeffries was a family man. When the mother of his sixteen-year-old daughter called him from a Lake Tapps gathering on the night of Saturday, August 3rd saying that her 36-year-old boyfriend was yet again causing problems and she wanted to be picked up, Lawrence drove over to pick her up. When he got there, the boyfriend got in his face and started a fight. Lawrence won that fight and picked up his ex.

Hours later, Lawrence’s sixteen-year-old daughter called saying the boyfriend was at their house in the 2000 block of East 44th Street and that he wanted the girl’s mother to come home and to bring Lawrence with her. The boyfriend claimed he just wanted to talk.

When they arrived, Lawrence and the boyfriend talked briefly before the boyfriend pulled a pistol from behind his back and shot Lawrence twice. He then fled in a car, running Lawrence over in the process.

Police quickly arrested the boyfriend who has a lengthy criminal record and has been charged with first degree murder.

Lawrence had five children and by all accounts was a man dedicated to his family. He was a good man and a good father. It is impossible to overstate the impact of his loss to his children, his family, and his friends.

As always, the comment section is moderated and reserved for family and friends who want to share thoughts or memories of Lawrence.

– Jack Cameron

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14th Tacoma Homicide of 2019: Jemone Pratt

Posted on December 14, 2019 | 3 comments

Jerome Pratt

Sixteen-year-old Jemone Pratt was standing with friends on front porch of a house in the 4600 block of South J Street on July 30th. A minivan drove by. The occupants of the van recognized Jerome. They believed he had threatened two of them in the van previously. They went around the block so that one of them could switch seats. They pulled up on the house and fired seven shots. Six hit the house. One hit Jemone Pratt in the head. He was transported to Tacoma General Hospital where he died of his injuries after fighting for his life for five hours.

This is the fourteenth Tacoma homicide this year. Typically we have roughly half this number of homicides by the end of July.

Tacoma police picked up the shooter along with two accomplices in the van days later. Jemone’s killer has been charged with first degree murder.

Jemone’s friends called him “Junior”. He had a larger than life personality. His family loved him dearly. The murder of and by teenagers are among the most tragic. Teenagers are just figuring out who they are and have yet to become who they could be. We’ll never get to know who Junior might have been. That’s been stolen from his friends and loved ones.

As always, the comments section is moderated and is reserved for those who knew Junior and want to share thoughts or memories of him.

There is a GoFundMe set up in Jerome’s name.

– Jack Cameron

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13th Tacoma Homicide of 2019: Hashim Wilson

Posted on December 13, 2019 | Leave a comment

HashimWilson

On the morning of Sunday, July 21nd, 28-year-old Hashim Wilson was pulled over by a Tacoma Police officer near South 40th and G Street. According to police reports Hashim exited the vehicle with a rifle and pointed it at the police officer. When he failed to obey commands, the officer shot him. Hashim was taken to a nearby hospital where he later died of his wounds becoming the thirteenth Tacoma homicide this year.

This is the third Tacoma police involved shooting this year. Willem Van Spronsen was shot just a week earlier, and a 53-year-old homeless woman armed with a knife was non-fatally shot weeks before. Typically there are one or two police involved shootings in Tacoma every year. But like other homicides, police involved shootings seem to be increasing as well.

Hashim and his partner lived in Sammamish.  He had a daughter who was the light of his life. He loved gardening and eating healthy. And he had a habit of putting family and friends above everything.

We may never know the details of Hashim’s last moments. But those who knew him will always remember the impact he had on their lives.

As always, the comments section is moderated and reserved for friends and family of Hashim who want to share thoughts or memories of him.

– Jack Cameron

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12th Tacoma Homicide of 2019 Willem Van Spronsen

Posted on December 2, 2019 | Leave a comment

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Less than three miles from where I’m writing this there sits a for-profit prison capable of housing 1,575 individuals, most of whom are in the Northwest Detention Center at 1600 East J Street simply for not being in this country legally. While one might be able to debate the merits of the immigration system, there is no moral argument to be made that incarceration should be something others profit off of.

It’s the sort of thing that can bother a person. Willem Van Spronsen was such a person. 65-years-ols, a former member of the John Brown Gun Club, a self-described anarchist, with a history of protesting what he felt was wrong came to the end of his rope in the early morning hours of July 11th. Armed with a rifle, flares, and other incendiary devices, Willem arrived at the Northwest Detention Center to cause trouble. Specifically he wanted to damage the vehicles ferrying prisoners in and out of the prison.

He successfully caught a vehicle on fire. Soon police arrived. There was an exchange of gunfire and Willem Van Spronsen was shot and killed by four Tacoma Police officers becoming the twelfth Tacoma homicide this year.

Willem lived on Vashon Island and was an avid activist. Shortly before he was killed, Willem sent out a three page manifesto saying that he saw the Northwest Detention Center as a symbol of rising fascism and lamenting that he would likely be killed in his action. It isn’t difficult for me to understand the motivations of Willem. It is also not difficult to understand the actions of the police officers. What was likely most unknowable for Willem was the impact the loss of his life is having now to his friends and his family.

When something like this happens, it is easy to get swept up in the headlines and forget about the individual impact the loss of a man’s life has on those who knew him. Though Willem’s loss is hurtful, there is perhaps some solace in the fact that he was killed doing what he’d done all his life, standing up for what he believed in.

As always, the comments section is moderated and reserved for those who knew Willem and want to share any thoughts or memories of him.

– Jack

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11th Tacoma Homicide of 2019 Jennifer Forsman

Posted on December 2, 2019 | Leave a comment

Jennifer Forsman

The twelve-year-old girl could hear her parents arguing on the early Sunday morning of June 9th. This wasn’t new. Her parents had divorced two and half years ago. They slept in separate bedrooms in a house in the 500 block of East 75th Street. Her and two of her older sisters all lived under one roof. Her father was upset that her mother was in a new relationship. By 6:15am, she’d gone out to the living room where they were fighting. At some point her father got a gun. He shot her mother once in the arm and once in the head and shot himself. The twelve year old girl took her siblings to the neighbor’s house and called 9-1-1. Police arrived and found that the bullet had ricocheted off her father’s head. He could make a full recovery.  Her mother on the other hand was dead. 37-year-old Jennifer Forsman is the eleventh Tacoma homicide this year.

The man who shot Jennifer was arrested and successfully hung himself while in custody four weeks later.

Jennifer was the mother of four daughters, ages 12-19. She worked as a barista at a University Place Starbucks where she’d been for over a decade. Family members say she was always a very positive person who tended to see the best in people. She was well liked and a good mother.

Whenever I tell people that I write about Tacoma homicides they tend to respond by saying, “A lot of gang shootings, right?” But the truth is that situations like the one that led to Jennifer Forsman’s murder are much more common when it comes to homicide. Domestic violence is one of the biggest dangers we tend to ignore.

I don’t know why Jennifer and her ex-husband lived together. It may have been as simple as the rent in Tacoma rising too fast for either to afford places of their own. Perhaps they wanted to live together for the children. Whatever the case, it is a tragedy that there wasn’t more help available for her. Domestic situations are never simple and solutions are rarely easy.*

I can’t imagine what the Forsmans’ children and families are going through. There is a fundraiser set up for the Forsman family at this link.

The comments section is reserved for friends and family of Jennifer Forsman who might want to share thoughts or memories of her. All comments are moderated and approved before they post.

-Jack

*If you or someone you know is suffering from domestic violence contact the Domestic Violence hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or click here.

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