On the night of Halloween, October 31, 2024, Ricktor Murphy, a 59-year-old Black man, was fatally shot in the parking lot of a convenience store in the 5600 block of South Birmingham Street in Tacoma, Washington. The shooting happened just after 11:30 p.m.; witnesses reported hearing seven to eight gunshots. Emergency responders found Murphy with multiple gunshot wounds and he was pronounced dead at the scene. The Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the death a homicide from those wounds.

According to investigators, the violence followed a brief argument in the parking lot after Murphy, who had just bought nachos, commented on the speed of a black Kia that had pulled in. Surveillance footage and witness statements indicate the Kia’s driver, 18-year-old Chase Andrew Wilcox, was accompanied by two women, one identified as his stepmother.

Wilcox was arrested on November 12, 2024, and booked on suspicion of first-degree murder. An anonymous tip reported Wilcox bragging about the killing and claiming he was defending his mother. At the time of the shooting Murphy worked as a sanitation contractor for Pierce County and was due for a promotion with the City of Tacoma. Was anyone in the area that night able to see or hear details that could help clarify what triggered the argument?