We now know the suspects in Wednesday’s shooting in Tacoma that wounded a detective were just 14 and 15 years old.
This is a troubling trend that officials say they are seeing across western Washington where young suspects are carrying out deadly crimes.
“There’s something going on that’s influencing our kids to pick up guns, go out and commit crimes,” said Pierce County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Darren Moss.
Law enforcement agencies across Western Washington say they’re being called to violent crimes and arresting suspects the same age as their kids.
“Between the ages of 13 through 24 to 25 years old that’s the majority of our suspects in our violent cases,” said Sgt. Moss, “It’s more of an eye test of hey man this is another one where we have an 18-year-old victim, this is another one where we have a 15-year-old suspect. another one we have a 19-year-old suspect.”
On Tuesday, Pierce County Sheriff’s Office was called to a double homicide where two men shot and killed each other. One was just 18 years old.
Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office is also seeing a spike. Earlier this month, four people were shot in an incident police are calling gang-related. Three of them were teenagers, including a 16-year-old who died over the weekend.
“Right now we are seeing an uptick in gang violence in Snohomish County involving juveniles specifically. The juveniles tug at our heart strings because we don’t ever want to see a kid involved in any shooting,” said Snohomish County Sheriff Adam Fortney.
Investigators said it’s especially difficult having to take on young teenage suspects with guns that have the same firepower as theirs. They also say something needs to be done fast because the trend is only getting worse.
“Is it a negative influence? or is there not enough of a deterrent,” questioned Sgt. Moss.
Shelbie Boyd with Tacoma PD said, “we are losing a generation of men in our community to violence. we are losing them to the courts because they’re choosing to make really bad decisions at a young age.
The Tacoma detective shot yesterday is expected to recover. He was alert and talking while in the ambulance Wednesday. The two teens accused or shooting him are expected to be in court on Monday.