29th Tacoma Homicide of 2023: Lane Gouker

Twenty-six-year-old Lane Gouker used to live at the Aero Apartments in the 9300 block of Ash Street with his ex-girlfriend, but they had moved out weeks before. There remained some items that Lane had not yet retrieved from the apartment. And on the evening of Tuesday, December 5, 2023 he intended to get those items back.

Lane asked someone who lived at the apartment now if he could pick up his belongings and was told he’d have to wait. This was not the first time Lane had been told this. Shortly before 9pm, witnesses say that Lane kicked open the apartment door. A twenty-four-year-old man with a lengthy criminal record and who was not legally allowed to own a gun walked out of a bedroom with a pistol and fired four or five times.

A witness heard someone yell “He got shot!”

Witnesses saw people take Lane in a car to the hospital where he died of his wounds becoming Tacoma’s 29th Tacoma homicide of 2023.

I can’t tell you much about Lane Gouker. He doesn’t seem to have lived much of his life online. I can tell you that we’ll never know who he might have become. I can say that there are people who have a hole in their lives where he used to be. And it’s those people we rely on to tell us more about Lane. If you knew Lane and want to share thoughts or memories of him please consider leaving a comment.

- Jack Cameron

---

TacomaStories is free for everyone. Every Monday we post about a Tacoma homicide, focusing on the victim. (The perpetrators get enough exposure from the media.)
Subscribe for free now or if you’re able, please consider supporting the work we do here at TacomaStories by becoming a paid subscriber. Just click the link below to subscribe.