On the evening of November 21, 2022, inside a tent at a homeless encampment in the 1200 block of Puyallup Avenue in Tacoma, 39-year-old Michael Perdue was shot once in the chest and died at the scene. Perdue had been inside the tent with his girlfriend and a friend when a 25-year-old man, later identified as Jarmal Packard, entered and became violent after alleging Perdue owed him Oxycodone. Witnesses say Packard assaulted Perdue’s friend, then demanded $2,500 from Perdue and shot him immediately after making that demand. First responders pronounced Perdue dead within fifteen minutes of arrival; his death was the city’s 40th homicide in 2022 and the third on that day.

Investigators later identified Packard and a 23-year-old woman, Ivory Lynch-Johnson, as suspects. They were found in Spokane in December and arrested after a search of their vehicle turned up ammunition matching a shell casing from the scene. Did anyone in the Tacoma homeless community or who knew Michael see or hear anything that night?