21st Tacoma Homicide of 2021: Soohui Kim
On the last night of her life, 42-year-old Soohui Kim went to a casino with her friend. It was September 21, 2021. They left in the early morning hours of September 22nd. Her friend fell asleep. Soohui had some ‘clear’ she wanted to sell. ‘Clear’ is slang for a kind of methamphetamine. She knew someone who wanted to buy it but he wasn’t someone she’d ever sold to before. She exchanged a few text messages with the man before agreeing to meet in the parking lot of an apartment complex in the 4500 block of South Puget Sound Avenue.
Around 4:30am, a few minutes before Soohui and her friend arrived in her SUV, the man she was texting with pulled up in a Honda and met with two other men. Those men waited for Soohui to pull up. Soohui’s friend woke up when they pulled into the parking lot. Moments later, the two men approached the vehicle from behind and fired 5-6 shots into the vehicle. Soohui immediately pulled out of the parking lot and drove away. Her friend had been grazed by a bullet. Soohui had been shot twice and crashed into a telephone pole on South 47th and Pine. Her friend ran to a nearby convenience store and called 9-1-1, but Soohui Kim was dead by the time first responders arrived becoming the twenty-first homicide of 2021.
With the help of witnesses, video surveillance, and cellphone data, police were able to identify, arrest, and charge the three men responsible for Soohui Kim’s murder.
I wasn’t able to find much about Soohui Kim’s life, friends, or family, but I know that she was more than someone who sold drugs. It’s all too easy for some to dismiss people involved in criminal activity as nothing more than criminals, but all of us are more than the worst things we’ve done. Soohui Kim had friends and family who will never hear her laugh again. They have a hole in their lives that will never be repaired. It is a loss they will simply get used to with time.
As always the comment section is reserved for those who knew Soohui Kim and would like to share thoughts or memories of her.
-Jack Cameron
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