Boy's killing called self-defense after gang fight ends in stabbing
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Police arrested three teenagers, two 15 and one 14, after the stabbing in the 100 block of East 56th Street. All three were later released.
Tacoma police spokesman Jim Mattheis said investigators think the teens were legally defending themselves against the 14-year-old, Marcus Carrillo, but a report will be sent to the county prosecutor, who will make the final decision.
Carrillo was taken to St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma, where he was pronounced dead.
The Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office said the knife severed the teenager's aorta, killing him nearly instantly.
"One-half inch to either side, or a shorter knife, and he'd still be with us today," a medical examiner's investigator said.
The young gangsters all knew each another because they used to go to the same school, Mattheis said. They all told police they are members of rival gangs.
Carrillo was in a car with six of his gang members about 7:30 p.m. when they encountered the three rivals walking with a dog on East 56th Street, near Pacific Avenue, the police spokesman said. Earlier, windows had been broken at the home of one member of the gangs — police weren't sure which gang — so tensions between the groups were high.
After Carrillo and his six cohorts got out of their car, there was shouting and then a fight. At one point, the dog with the three teenagers was thrown to the ground, Mattheis said.
When one of the three teens was being beaten by Carrillo and another boy, he pulled out a knife and stabbed Carrillo once in the chest, the police spokesman said.
The three teens ran away, but officers and a police dog found the boys hiding nearby. Homicide detectives interviewed the three teens before releasing them to their parents.
All three had suffered cuts or bruises in the fight, Mattheis said.