Police Say Death Of Gang Suspect Won't Cut Crime

TACOMA

Police say the accidental death of a man they believe was a Hilltop gang leader will not reduce gang activity.

Dwayne Hill, 20, died Tuesday when he shot himself in the head, authorities said.

Hill, a long-standing members of the Hilltop Crips, was believed to be a drug dealer and was a suspect in several drive-by shootings and assaults, said Tacoma police Officer Barry McColeman, who specializes in gang activity.

In the past three years, McColeman said he has contacted Hill, known on the street as "Looney," about 100 times.

Hill's absence will not result in reduced crime in Hilltop, nor will it leave a void in gang society, McColeman said. There's always someone to take a gang leader's place, he said.

Gang activity might even escalate temporarily, McColeman said, because "his buddies will be out there drinking, shooting it up and generally mourning his loss."

On Tuesday, Hill and several friends gathered in a motel room to drink, police said. Hill shot himself with a Browning 9mm semiautomatic, apparently unaware there was a bullet in the chamber, police said.

The gun may have been used in a drive-by shooting the previous evening, McColeman said. No one was injured in that shooting.

In 1988, Eugene Carr, Hill's older half-brother, was one of the first gang fatalities in Tacoma. Carr would point guns in other people's faces, pretending he was going to shoot them, McColeman said. A gang member who didn't appreciate Carr's actions approached him while he was sleeping and pulled the trigger for real.