Tacoma's First Homicide of 2008: Eric Nevils
It’s almost the fourth month of the year and I’ve yet to write up a homicide in the city of Tacoma. Usually by now, there are between three and five homicides. This year, there’s only been two. The first was a police involved shooting in North East Tacoma. This still counts as a homicide despite the fact that the killing was done by a police officer. Strangely, vehicular homicides are not counted in homicide statistics so the recent hit and run on South 38th and Fawcett wasn’t counted.
Last Thursday night though, 30-Year-Old Eric Nevils became the first non-police involved homicide of 2008 in Tacoma. At this point not much is known or being released about the shooting. Eric Nevils was found shot on a dead end street in Old Town. Two vehicles were reported leaving the scene shortly after the sound of gunshots were heard.
Old Town is of course the oldest part of Tacoma and not the sort of place where you’ll find too much crime. So far, all indications are that the cars and Eric were in a part of town that they had no affiliation with. Old Town at night is a very quiet place. Odds are, the gunshots could probably have been heard from the nearby Ruston Way waterfront.
Usually when there is this little amount of information about a recent homicide, it means one of two things: either the investigation is going very well and thus they want to keep it quiet, or it’s an outright mystery. Here’s hoping it’s the first one.
-Jack
