On the evening of December 22, 2019, 19-year-old Luis Delacerda was found by Federal Way police inside a vehicle in the Westway neighborhood, suffering from life-threatening gunshot wounds. The car had struck a fire hydrant and stopped perpendicular to the roadway. He was taken to Harborview Medical Center and died later that night; the King County Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide.

Investigators determined the shooting occurred at about 5:30 p.m. The killing appears tied to a cycle of retaliatory violence: Delacerda had been shot and injured in February 2019 during an altercation involving the brother of Damien Helmbrecht, and police say gun violence had been rising in Westway at the time. No suspects in Delacerda’s murder have been publicly identified or arrested, and investigators reported limited cooperation from participants in the disputes complicating the case.

Did anyone in the Westway community have information about Delacerda’s movements or contacts in December 2019?