Gregory Hughes, a 51-year-old Black man known to family as Pooh, was shot and killed outside the Fern Hill Terrace Apartments in Tacoma, Washington, in the early morning of October 9, 2022. Hughes, a carpenter and handyman who was staying with a friend and coworker, stepped outside to smoke shortly after 2:00 a.m. First responders found Hughes unresponsive in the 200 block of South 80th Street; an autopsy determined he died of multiple gunshot wounds to his back and a blood trail suggested he had been running from his attacker when shot.

Tacoma police identified 35-year-old Evans Vailolo, a resident of the same complex, as the primary suspect based on surveillance footage and witness descriptions. Vailolo was arrested on October 18, 2022, and charged with murder and unlawful possession of a firearm. He remained in custody awaiting trial. When the matter reached a jury in November 2024, the defense emphasized that the actual shooting was not captured on video and disputed elements of the prosecution narrative; the jury ultimately returned not guilty verdicts on all counts. Hughes is survived by nine children; his family says they are left without the closure they sought.

Did anyone in the Fern Hill Terrace area see or record anything that night that hasn’t been shared publicly?