By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
The 17-year-old suspect charged as an adult in a double-homicide early Saturday in Pierce County, Washington has prior convictions for violent crime and unlawful possession of a firearm, according to published reports.
Facing two counts of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree unlawful firearm possession is Isaiah Davion Williams, suspect in a wild shooting at a teen party in Spanaway, a suburb of Tacoma. The incident was captured on a neighbor’s security camera. According to the Seattle Times, Williams pleaded guilty to two counts of third-degree assault in neighboring King County, having used a firearm to pistol whip a woman in the face, but the judge in that case “ordered his juvenile rehabilitation sentence be suspended in favor of community supervision, which included mental health treatment and volunteer work.”
In 2023, the newspaper said, Williams “he pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a firearm for allegedly attempting to enter the King County Superior Courthouse with a loaded firearm, that police later determined was stolen from a gun dealer.” On that charge, he was sentenced to 30 days in detention, but the report noted he “earned credit for already having served over 60 days in the Seattle youth jail.”
Seattle’s KOMO News—the local ABC affiliate—said the shooting came after neighbors called the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department beginning at 10:46 p.m. Friday night. Neighbors called 911 at 12:24 a.m. Saturday morning to report shots fired, according to the published timeline. One minute later, deputies arrived.
KOMO obtained video footage of the incident, which was posted on YouTube.
According to Seattle’s KING News—the local NBC affiliate—Williams is being held on $2 million bail, “but bail is set to be discussed next week at the request of the defense attorney.”
Williams clearly has a criminal history involving firearms he could not possibly have obtained legally. It is illegal in Washington state for anyone under age 21 to be carrying a concealed handgun. Juveniles may not legally purchase handguns in the state.
Still, those laws did not prevent the shooting, according to people weighing in online at the Seattle Times or KOMO websites. The incident occurred as the state legislature is considering two onerous gun control measures aimed at adults, one mandating a permit-to-purchase firearms and the other expanding so-called “gun-free/sensitive area” zones. Those expanded zones would exempt concealed pistol license holders, of which there are currently more than 700,000 in the state, according to new data obtained by TGM from the state Department of Licensing.
Williams was among the people who were wounded in the shooting, published reports said. One of the victims, aged 19, died at the hospital following emergency surgery, according to KIRO News, the local CBS affiliate. The other victim, aged 15, died at the scene. The Times report noted both of them also had guns.
None of the published reports identified the guns, or explained their origin. It is not known what, exactly, ignited the shooting hostilities.
Washington state has undergone what many in the firearms community consider an alarming transformation from a state with reasonable gun laws to having among the most restrictive gun control laws in the nation. With the increasing restrictions, shootings and gun-related homicides have only increased over the past decade. Yet, gun control advocates have continued to demand even more restrictions, and they have been working with a cooperative, Democrat-controlled legislature, governor and attorney general to make it happen.
