On the afternoon of September 21, 2025, Dustin Carter, 49, of Gig Harbor, Washington, was shot and killed in a South Tacoma alley between South Warner Street and South Puget Sound Avenue. Police were alerted by 911 calls reporting gunfire just after 3 p.m.; officers found Carter near a red van with a gunshot wound to the chest and pronounced him dead at the scene. The Pierce County Medical Examiner ruled the cause of death a gunshot wound to the chest and classified it a homicide.

A 28-year-old man identified as Donovan Bailey O'Neal was arrested the same night after approaching police with gunshot wounds to his right arm and right side. Court documents say the confrontation began as an argument over an allegedly stolen drug pipe, escalated into a fistfight, and then into an exchange of gunfire that left Carter dead and another man critically injured. Prosecutors later charged O'Neal with second-degree murder, first-degree assault, and first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm; he pleaded not guilty and was held on $2 million bail.

An obituary for Dustin Dusty Camm Carter described him as quick-witted, generous, and devoted to his children, and noted long-term health struggles from toxic exposure at a prior job. Does anyone have information about that afternoon or heard from witnesses in the South Tacoma area?