Twelfth Tacoma Homicide of 2018: Antonio Douglas
It was just after 11pm on December 4th. Some teenagers had pulled off the road in the 3700 block of Marine View Drive in Northeast Tacoma. They were smoking marijuana and passing around a stolen pistol. Seventeen-year-old was in the driver's seat of the Toyota Camry. He pulled the clip out of the gun and handed it to his 17-year-old friend in the back. Charging papers say the friend told them that Antonio told him the gun was empty. His friend pointed the gun at the driver's seat and pulled the trigger. The bullet went through the seat, through, Antonio's arm and into his torso. Antonio opened the driver's side door and fell out of the car. The others in the car drove him to his Aunt's house. When his aunt saw that he had been shot, she told them to take him to the hospital. Antonio later died at the hospital becoming Tacoma's twelfth homicide this year.
I was not able to find much online about Antonio. He was seventeen years old. So is his friend. His friend's life will never be the same and Antonio's life has ended long before it should have. The tragedy of this is as obvious as it is painful. While the tragedy is most felt by friends and family of Antonio, this is a tragedy for all of us because we will never get to see what Antonio could have been. Antonio's friend has been arrested and charged with first-degree manslaughter.
This is the very definition of a homicide that should not have happened. If they hadn't been playing with a gun, if his friend would have checked for a bullet in the chamber of the pistol, maybe if they'd driven him directly to the hospital, maybe if they hadn't been smoking marijuana. There are a hundred things we could point at and say it shouldn't have happened, but none of that changes the reality of the situation. We lost a child. And that matters. I write about these homicides so they will be remembered. We can't save Antonio, but we can remember him, remember what happened, and hope it doesn't happen again.
As always, the comments section is moderated and reserved for friends and family of Antonio who might want to share any thoughts or memories about it. - Jack Cameron