An 18-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly being the second shooter in a Pierce County mass shooting that left two dead and four injured last month.
The Pierce County Sheriff’s SWAT Team and detectives arrested the man in Des Moines around 10 p.m. on Thursday for the March 29 shooting that happened near the 17800 block of 25th Avenue Court, according to the sheriff’s office on X. He has been booked into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of first-degree assault.
The Sheriff’s Office posted on X body camera footage of the arrest in the 28700 block of Soundview Drive.
The News Tribune does not generally name suspects who have not yet been charged with crimes.
A 17-year-old boy has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm in connection to the shooting, court records show. He is being held at Remann Hall on a $1 million bail.
Hector Gonzalez Valdez, 19, and Joaquin Ramirez, 15, were identified as the individuals who were killed. They were attending a house party that had about 40 to 50 people in attendance, according to charging documents.
Surveillance footage showed they were both talking to the 17-year-old outside in the middle of the street when they were suddenly shot, according to court records. Ramirez died in the street. Valdez was taken to a local hospital where he died.
The alleged motive was unclear in charging documents, but The News Tribune spoke to a survivor of the shooting who said a fight occurred just before in the home. The partygoers were kicked out as a result, she said, and were standing outside the home when the shooting happened.
A mass shooting in a Spanaway neighborhood on March 29, 2025 left two people dead and four injured.
The incident rocked a once-quiet Pierce County neighborhood, with neighbors saying that they wished someone had sent the partygoers home sooner so the shooting could have been prevented, according to a previous News Tribune report.