8th Tacoma Homicide of 2023: Brock Watkins
On the morning of March 25, 2023 Tacoma police responded to reports of a man with head injuries laying on the ground on the tree line in the 400 block of South Tacoma Way. The man was pronounced dead by first responders. The Pierce County Medical Examiner would later identify the man as 58-year-old Brock Watkins.
Brock died due to ‘sharp and blunt force trauma’, but I cannot tell you much more than that because nothing much more has been released about his death.
I can’t tell you a lot about Brock. He doesn’t have a large digital footprint. Much of what is available involves his criminal record. Here at TacomaStories, a homicide victim’s criminal record is typically ignored given that the person has died and everyone is more than the worst things they’ve ever done.
That said, there is one night in March of 2014 when Brock Watkins found the keys to a streetsweeper in Puyallup and took it for a joy ride crashing through fences and buildings until the vehicle could go no further and he was arrested. And at the time he said he had a lot of fun doing it. I don’t think he’d mind me mentioning it.
Brock is the eighth Tacoma homicide of 2023. His murder remains unsolved. Anyone with any information is encouraged to contact Pierce County CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS or the Tacoma Police Department at (253) 287-4455.
As I mentioned, there wasn’t a lot of personal information about Brock that I could find. When this occurs I rely on family and friends of the victim to share thoughts and memories of him. Please only use the comment section for this purpose.
- Jack Cameron