20th Tacoma Homicide of 2022: Samuel 'Sammy' Garza-Gonzales

Twenty-four year old Samuel Garza-Gonzales sat in the passenger seat of his cousin’s vehicle on the evening of May 7, 2022. He went by Sammy His wife’s children, ages 2 and 3, were in the back seat. They were going to visit a relative on Tacoma’s east side, but that relative was not home. They were in the area of East 35^th and D Street just after 11:15pm when two people in a white truck opened fire on their vehicle.

When Sammy cousin realized that Samuel had been shot in the neck, he drove to the hospital where Samuel died of his wound becoming the twentieth Tacoma homicide of 2022.

Police initially responding to reports of gunfire found two witnesses. One of them took video of the incident showing two people firing at the SUV Sammy was riding in. A subsequent search of the truck led to a brief high-speed chase that ended when the driver lost two wheels of his truck on River Road and surrendered. He along with two others were arrested and charged with Samuel Garza-Gonzales’s murder.

The investigation eventually led to the determination that this was a gang related shooting. There was a blue bandana tied around the steering wheel of the white truck. Sammy was wearing red the night he was killed. One report claimed the shooting was a gang initiation into the Sureno 13 gang.

Regardless of the motivation, Sammy is gone from the lives of everyone who knew and loved him because of a senseless shooting that did not need to happen. One can only hope those children are too young to remember the incident, but they’ll grow up knowing the collective sadness of his loss in the family.

Sammy was rarely happier than when he was working on cars. Whenever he had a chance you’d find him under the hood. He worked various jobs, eventually becoming a CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) which fit his compassionate demeanor. There are countless people he could have helped if his life had not been cut short.

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

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