6th Tacoma Homicide of 2024: De'Layah Sims
A lot of people say that teenagers don’t know what love is and that teenage love, that high school love we’ve all felt isn’t real love. But I don’t think those people remember what being in love as a teenager was like. It could be argued that teenagers feel more than adults because as adults we learn to armor ourselves. I’m sure that whatever 17-year-old De'Layah Sims felt for her 18-year-old boyfriend, she thought it was real. Sure, he was dangerous, but that made it exciting.
Lately it had gotten out of hand. He was getting paranoid. He kept accusing her of cheating. By March 2024 her relationship with him had become too toxic too ignore. She had just turned 17. They had been arguing.
Then on March 21, 2024 sent her threatening text messages. He told her he had a gun and demanded she come outside. She refused. He fired a shot at her neighbor’s place and drove away. Rather than being exciting, things had become scary.
Two days later they broke things off for good. It was almost 8:30pm. He was supposed to come by and drop off some of her stuff. De’Layah called her sister. She was on the phone with her when her ex pulled up. Her sister heard screams and a gunshot. Her sister called their mother who soon found her daughter on the ground bleeding. “Help me, Momma,” she said, “I think I’m dying.”
Her parents took her to the hospital where she later died from the gunshot wound to her torso becoming Tacoma’s sixth Tacoma homicide of 2024.
Her 18-year-old ex has been arrested and charged with her murder.
Her family has a GoFundMe campaign and it is still active. If you have the means, this is a direct way you can help a suffering family in your community.
I can’t tell you too much about who De’Layah was as a person. And no one will ever be able to tell you about the woman she could have grown to be. Her friends and family who knew her can tell you thoughts and memories about her in the comment section. That’s what it’s there for.
- Jack Cameron