Firefighters put out a small fire at a Stadium District apartment complex Wednesday night.
Crews responded around 7 p.m. to 1 N. Broadway and found a mattress on fire in the entryway of the building, according to Tacoma fire spokesman Joe Meinecke.
The occupants were evacuated, and no one was injured. There was minimal damage to the building.
It is unknown why the mattress was in the entryway.
A 21-year-old woman accused of stabbing her mother to death last year during an argument over living arrangements pleaded guilty Wednesday.
Laura Jennette Jonston pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder with a knife, deputy prosecutor Phil Sorensen reported. She faces 12 to 20 years in prison when she’s sentenced Aug. 19.
Prosecutors had accused Jonston of killing her 60-year-old mother, Shirley Miluk, Feb. 20, 2009, in Miluk’s apartment on 153rd Avenue Court East. Miluk had been stabbed at least nine times.
She was found after another daughter asked Sumner police to check on Miluk’s welfare. Officers later tracked …
Two men accused of being leaders in a Tacoma street gang pleaded guilty today to lesser charges.
Jamal Henry and Eugene Henderson initially faced charges in the vast conspiracy case against reputed members of the Hilltop Crips. When a judge ruled in May that Pierce County prosecutors could not pursue the widespread case, the two men were charged with leading organized crime.
Deputy prosecutor Greg Greer said the leading organized crime charge would have been difficult to prove given the evidence that had been collected.
“It’s too demanding in the sense of the elements versus the proof we have …
Tacoma police were investigating two driveby shootings Tuesday night. No injuries were reported in either incident.
The first incident occurred about 10:30 p.m. The victims were driving south in the 7200 block of Interstate 5 in Tacoma when a silver Intrepid pulled up.
Occupants of the Intrepid flashed gang signs at the other can and then someone fired one round from a gun, police reported. The bullet struck the wheel of the other vehicle.
Witnesses got a partial license plate of the suspects’ vehicle. The number and a description of the vehicle was broadcast to on-duty patrol officers, police said. …
A 46-year-old Lakewood man who perished in a condominium fire Saturday night has been identified.
Donald L. Owings’ cause of death has yet to be determined, according to the Pierce County Medical Examiner. Firefighters responded around 11 p.m. to the 8600 block of Zircon Drive Southwest and found heavy smoke and flames coming from the window of a second-story unit.
The blaze originated in Owings’ condominium, according to Lakewood fire spokeswoman Jenny Sharp. No one else was injured. Investigators are still looking into what started the fire, Sharp said Tuesday.
The man whose body was discovered floating in the Puyallup River in Tacoma Monday morning has been identified.
Steven Grigsby, 45, of Puyallup died from freshwater drowning, according to the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office. Tacoma firefighters recovered the body near where the river meets Commencement Bay.
There were no obvious signs of foul play, according to Tacoma police spokesman Mark Fulghum. It is unknown how Grigsby got into the water.
Tacoma police arrested 10 men during a prostitution sting last week along the southern end of Pacific Avenue.
Residents and business owners in the area of 92nd Street and Pacific Avenue had been complaining about prostitution activity, police spokesman Mark Fulghum said.
The department’s special investigations unit, gang team, the Sector 4 community liaison officers, other officers and federal immigration agents conducted an undercover prostitution operation in the area Thursday.
The officers arrested 10 men on suspicion of soliciting prostitution, Fulghum said. Of those, five were determined to be illegal aliens and handled over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he …
Tacoma police were searching for three young men suspected of robbing a South End bookstore this morning.
One of the robbers was reportedly armed with a knife.
The men entered the Park Avenue Bookstore, 8304 S. Park Ave., just before 11:30 a.m. They took money from the cash register and fled out the back door, Tacoma police spokesman Mark Fulghum said.
The owner reported to officers the suspects had been hanging around the bookstore in previous weeks, taking small items, Fulghum said.
A police dog and officers searched for the suspects but were not able to locate them.
The robbers …