This editorial will appear in Monday’s print edition.

An open-air drug market, frustrated neighbors and a police department that appeared to be beating a retreat: Something was bound to happen in Tacoma’s Hilltop in September 1989.

Happen, it did. As The News Tribune’s Sean Robinson recounted in Sunday’s paper, a firefight between off-duty Army Rangers and gangsters erupted, spraying 300 bullets across the neighborhood but miraculously killing no one.
The shooting was over in 10 minutes; the ramifications played out for years.

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