3rd Tacoma Homicide of 2023: Javon Gipson
There are some homicides where very little information is released to the public. Sometimes this is because that information is being used in the ongoing investigation. Sometimes it’s because the detectives have very little information to share. Whatever the case, what I can tell you about the last morning of 47-year-old Javon Gipson’s life is that at 1:44am on January 22, 2023 someone called 911 reporting shots fired in an apartment near the 100 block of St. Helens. First responders arrived on the scene and took Javon to a local hospital where he later died.
Like the police, I am unable to tell you at this time who killed Javon or why. The events surrounding his death are a mystery that will hopefully be solved soon. If you have any information on this homicide, you are encouraged to contact Pierce County CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS or the Tacoma Police Department at (253) 287-4455.
What I can tell you about Javon is that he could be really funny, but that wasn’t a side of himself that he showed everybody. He loved being a father. Some people called him ‘Bird’. Javon worked giving rides to pilots and flight crews at the airport. He loved hearing their stories of their travels.
Almost a year and a half later, I can tell you that his family and friends still miss him and feel his absence.
Of course, I did not know Javon. His family and friends did. I encourage them to share thoughts and memories of Javon in the comment section.
- Jack Cameron
I knew Jevon when we were eight or nine years old. It was 1985-86, Seattle. His jeans creased at the back of his knees in a particular way. I wanted my jeans to do that. Every girl in our class liked him, literally. One time he was supposed to come to my house. I waited upstairs at the window, watching the street, waiting for him, but I knew he wouldn’t come, I could feel it. But another time he did. We shot baskets in my backyard. He told me what he got for Christmas. Air Jordans, a sweater, some jeans. I found that unbelievable. Clothes as presents? That didn’t make any sense. We went down to the basement, where there was a telephone, and I stood next to him while he called some fifth-grade girls. Malia, Stacy, Jeanette. He had a confident way of talking. I wanted my voice to sound like his. Later, we watched Conan the Barbarian, as we waited for his mom to come pick him up. One day, Mrs. Holmes told the class that this was Jevon's last week, he was leaving the school. He was moving to West Seattle. I went once to his house after he left the school. It was in the Highpoint projects, I think, though I'm not sure about that. There was a dresser with his brother’s trumpet in a case on top of it. In the front room, we sat on the carpet with his mom and a man in a blue durag. We watched a show on their console TV. Two people were trying to have a sword fight on a frozen lake but kept slipping on the ice. It was the daytime, but I remember it felt dark in the room. I was sad, because I knew our short friendship was over, since he was at a different school now. Sure enough we lost touch, but I never forgot him. How could I? He was a truly beautiful kid, perhaps the coolest I ever knew.