A late summer gathering in Tacoma turned deadly on August 13, 2019. Neighbors reported hearing 15 to 20 gunshots near East 38th Street and East Roosevelt Avenue around 11:40 p.m. Five people were hit; 26-year-old Antoine Jamir Holmes, a Black / African American man from nearby University Place, suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Nineteen-year-old Rigoberto Villagomez-Dillon also died, and three women aged 16, 17, and 34 were wounded and expected to survive.

Authorities described the shooting as erupting during a gathering of family and friends and linked it to a broader rise in gang-related violence in the city at that time. Tacoma Police detectives opened an investigation but did not release details about what led to the attack, and no suspects were publicly identified as of late 2019. Subsequent retaliatory shootings followed; one left a 19-year-old man paralyzed and led to arrests, but the people responsible for Holmes and Villagomez-Dillon’s deaths have not been publicly identified.

If anyone was at that gathering or has information that could help resolve who was responsible, please come forward to investigators.