20th Tacoma Homicide of 2023: Pepe Jaquez
Pepe Jaquez was having an affair with a woman who had a controlling boyfriend. It’d started back when the boyfriend was in the hospital after overdosing. Shortly after the 43-year-old boyfriend learned about the affair in April of 2023, his girlfriend reported to Tacoma police that Pepe had raped her.
Police questioned Pepe at the time. He explained that they had been having an affair for a while now and had engaged in consensual sex, but that she had a volatile boyfriend who was dangerous and likely put her up to making the accusation.
Four months later, on August 27, 2023 the woman he’d been having an affair with had asked Pepe to go to Franklin Park at 2:00am at which point she’d text him. Pepe and his brother arrived in a black Chevy Tahoe with his 50-year-old younger brother.
When it was clear that the text wasn’t coming, Pepe and his brother left. Shortly after, Pepe noticed the boyfriend on a bicycle near South 19th Street. Pepe followed the bicycle to the Key Bank parking lot on South 19th and Union Street.
The two men had a conversation that ended in gunfire. As soon as Pepe’s brother heard gunfire he started running. The gunman shot Pepe’s brother in the back. He ran towards South 18th Street screaming to anyone who could hear that someone had shot his brother.
Police arrived to find Pepe behind the wheel of the still running Suburban with his foot on the gas pedal, but still in Park. He was unresponsive with his head bleeding. First responders transported both him and his brother to the hospital with life threatening injuries. Three days later, Pepe died from his wounds.
From witnesses and surveillance video, police quickly tracked down the man who shot Pepe and his brother. He was arrested and charged with with first-degree murder, first-degree attempted murder, second-degree murder, first-degree assault, and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.
Pepe was a computer programmer and I’d love to tell you more about his life beyond how it ended and what his profession was, but Pepe kept his private life fairly private and didn’t share a lot of personal information online.
This is why the comment section is reserved for friends and family of Pepe who knew him and want to share thoughts or memories of him.
- Jack Cameron