On the morning of February 7, 2022, Joshua Ferrell, 40, was shot in his room at the Econo Lodge motel in a south Tacoma neighborhood where he was known to sometimes deal fentanyl and methamphetamine. Two men arrived that morning in a maroon Lexus and went into his room. The visitors left shortly before Ferrell stumbled into the parking lot bleeding from a gunshot wound to his shoulder. A female friend drove him to a nearby hospital, where he later died; the Pierce County Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide.

Investigators found a trail of blood to his room and discovered Ferrell’s drugs were missing. Calls to police identified 22-year-old Jeremiah Pauulu Tusi as a suspect, alleging he bragged about robbing and killing Ferrell. A warrant for first-degree murder was issued on February 11; on February 15 officers located Tusi, who fled in a vehicle and led them on a chase into Lakewood, crashing into several cars before an officer shot and seriously injured him.

The second man seen with Tusi at the motel has not been publicly identified.