UPDATE: The victim has been identified as Devin Toops, who graduated from Kentridge High a year ago.

He had signed a letter of intent to play football at Eastern Washington University, according to the The Associated Press.

INITIAL POST: Kent police today are investigating the death of an 18-year-old man who was shot outside a house party.

Officers are interviewing witnesses from the shooting, which occurred at 2:05 a.m. on 92^nd Avenue South, said police Sgt. Pat Lowery.

The man and his friends were leaving a party when a group of men confronted them, Lowery said. The two groups got …

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The Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office has identified the suicidal man shot and killed last night by Tacoma police in the parking lot of a popular waterfront restaurant.

Kenneth Wickham, 63, of Gig Harbor, was allegedly threatening to kill himself inside the Ram Restaurant and Brewery on Ruston Way. Restaurant patrons called police about 8:15 p.m. out of concern that Wickham would commit suicide.

He allegedly went to his car to retrieve a gun and was waving the weapon around in the parking lot when officers arrived. When Wickham did not obey orders to put the gun down and pointed …

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A year ago today, a Seattle police officer was killed and another wounded when a car pulled up to their police cruiser and the driver opened fire.

The slaying of 39-year-old Timothy Brenton was the first of six Puget Sound officers to be killed in the line of duty during the last three months of 2009.

Earlier this week, the Seattle Times published a story about a memorial for Brenton in the neighborhood where he was killed and what his family has been through in the past year. You can find that story here.

The memorial is scheduled to …

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If you’re taking your little ghouls, pumpkins and princesses out tonight for some trick-or-treating, the Puyallup Police Department offers these safety tips:

* Children should always go trick or treating accompanied by a responsible adult. If your kids are old enough to go out without an adult, let them know that they should stay together as a group.
* Plan a safe route so you know where older kids will be at all times and set a curfew time to return home. The City of Puyallup does not have set curfew times for trick-or-treating.
* Let your child

…

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Phillip K. Otto was not yet 16 when he shot three people, one of them fatally, within an eight-day period of 2008.

This afternoon, Otto learned his punishment: 45 years, 10 months in prison.

It wasn’t nearly enough for relatives and friends of Joshua Gatbunton, who died Sept. 3 after Otto shot him in the head during an attempted robbery.

“I wish he could get life in prison,” said Gatbunton’s mother, Kim. “We are living a life sentence without our loved one.”

Otto, 18, pleaded guilty last month to first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder in two shootings that injured …

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Sheriff’s detectives are searching for a man they believe has shot and wounded three people over the past two nights in unincorporated Pierce County.

The state Department of Corrections has issued a warrant for 28-year-old Stephen Young’s arrest. Pierce County sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said Young should be considered dangerous.

All the victims are expected to survive their injuries, Troyer said today. Investigators believe Young and the victims are part of a larger group that is involved in drugs.

“The reasons why these people were shot were minimal,” Troyer said. “We do know there are drugs involved with everyone involved, …

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Safe Streets groups will gather Saturday at an East Side park to plant a small garden in honor of a City of Tacoma worker gunned down earlier this year on her front porch.

The event is scheduled from 9 to 11 a.m. in the Stewart Heights Park, 402 E. 56th St.

The garden is in memory of Lisa Marie Melancon, a 40-year-old city code enforcement officer who had worked closely with several Safe Streets groups over the years. She died July 22 after being hit in the head by a bullet fired from a car fleeing a fistfight in …

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A former Lakewood Wal-Mart employee suspected of helping to plan the fatal robbery of an armored-car guard is scheduled to plead guilty next week.Tonie Marie Williams-Irby, 43, previously pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated first-degree murder, first degree murder, first-degree assault, first-degree robbery and two counts of criminal solicitation of first-degree robbery.

Pierce County Superior Court Judge Frederick Fleming is set to take Williams-Irby’s plea at 9:30 a.m. Monday, according to court records.  It could not be immediately determined what she’ll plead to.

Prosecutors contend Williams-Irby, who worked as a floor manager at the store until her arrest, provided …

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