TACOMA, Wash. — A man convicted of murder for killing four people in a 2021 shooting in Tacoma's Salishan neighborhood was sentenced Thursday.
The defendant, Maleke Dominque Pate, 24, was convicted of the killings of 22-year-old Raymond Williams, his girlfriend 22-year-old Natasha Brincefield, Williams' older sister 42-year-old Maria Nunez-Lese and her son Emery Lese, 19.
Pate reportedly attended fifth grade with one of the victims, but officials have said there is no other indication of a connection nor a motive in the fatal shootings. He was charged with four counts of aggravated murder in 2021.
Around 4:24 p.m. on Oct. 21, 2021, near the 4200 block of Everett Avenue in Tacoma, a person in a home, which Nunez rented, heard two gunshots and saw a man with a gun standing in the alley behind the home.
The person said at the time of the shooting, two or three of the victims were inside a car in the alley and one or two of the victims were standing near the car, according to charging documents.
Another witness told police they saw the gunman firing into the vehicle several times. Three victims were found in the alley. Witnesses reported seeing the fourth victim, identified as Lese, run from behind the house toward the street as the gunman chased and shot him.
Following the shooting, detectives sent out a bulletin with pictures of the suspect, and an officer who previously worked as a school resource officer identified Pate as the suspect. He was arrested at his Tacoma home on Oct. 29, 2021.
Charging documents state that detectives found a 9mm handgun at Pate's home during a search with ammunition that matched the bullets found at the scene, KING 5 previously reported.