Police Say Tacoma Chief Kills Wife, Self

AP

[KansasCanadian]

Police Say Tacoma Chief Kills Wife, Self

The Associated Press Apr 26 2003 10:49PM

GIG HARBOR, Wash. (AP) - Tacoma Police Chief David Brame was killed and his wife was injured in an apparent murder-suicide attempt Saturday, a day after abuse allegations in the couple's divorce case were publicized in media reports.

``The probability is strong that the chief shot his wife and then himself,'' Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said.

Brame was pronounced dead at 5:52 p.m. at St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma, Troyer said. His wife, Crystal, was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle in critical condition.

The shooting took place around 3:10 p.m. in the parking lot of a shopping center in this town northwest of Tacoma, Troyer said.

The chief and his wife arrived in the parking lot separate cars, with the couple's children in Crystal Brame's vehicle. At one point, the chief put the children in his car, then went back to his wife's car, shot her and turned the gun on himself, authorities believe.

A witness said she saw people in the parking lot running around and screaming after the shootings.

``They had no idea. They were just running for safety,'' said Kirsten Oakland, 36, and a hair stylist at Harbor Cutter, a shop that looks out onto the parking lot.

The children were in the care of their mother's parents Saturday night, Troyer said. No other information about the children was released.

Brame rose through the ranks to become police chief in Tacoma, a city of 194,000, in January 2002.

``It's a bad day for law enforcement,'' Troyer said. ``This is somebody everybody knew and respected.''

``He was exactly what you want,'' Troyer added, ``rose up through the ranks, worked very hard and made chief.''

On Friday, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that documents in the couple's divorce case recounted a stormy, sometimes violent relationship.

Crystal Brame accused her husband of pointing his gun at her, trying to choke her and saying he ``could snap my neck if he wanted to.''

But Brame said he had been victimized in the relationship. He accused his wife of having a ``ferocious temper'' and being emotionally unstable.

In court papers, Brame said his wife scratched, bruised and pushed him during two fights in September 1996.

[JustPiper]

I went to HS with a girl whose Dad was a cop and did this. She became big in Chicago politics, activist for abused women and author.

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

But, but, only the police need to have the guns to protect us. I would wager there is a greater criminal misuse of firearms amongst LEO than in the general population.

[pepsionice]

I lived in Tacoma for 18 months...and could not believe the amount of corruption for a town this size. Everyone....from the Police to the city council to the garbage collection folks to the electrical company...were all on the take. I tried to look at the history of the town and figure out where they went off track...but it looked to me like it was the start-up of WW II and the business interests that came into the area at that point. The town had nothing going for it before WW II and everyone seemed to be waiting for the big-payoff.

[hoosierham]

A retired engineer told me the same thing ; it is a very depressing thing to never see the sun.

[microgood]

Glad you are getting out of here. Not in the cards yet for me, but am looking toward the Rockies where I grew up.

[microgood]

Its where we get most of our Vitamin D.

[rainingred]

Hey, don't go confusing Tacoma with Seattle. One good thing about Tacoma is it isn't Seattle. :-)

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Police Say Tacoma Chief Kills Wife, Self

Tacoma Police Chief David Brame was killed and his wife was injured in an apparent murder-suicide attempt

AP needs to pay attention to the titles that they write. This one is incorrect. The wife was injured, not killed like the title says.

[rabidralph]

Is it a sign of Spring? Four prominent murder suicides in the last 4 days.

Yep, it's a sure sign of spring: when some people won't be getting any. It drives them to do stupid things.

[HairOfTheDog]

I am just getting caught up on this, the shooting actually took place in Gig Harbor? - Murder/suicide in a parking lot with the kids right there? Bizarre!

I hope the wife makes it.

[Clinging Bitterly]

It was reported in the regional media on Friday (before this incident) that she had obtained a restraining order against him.

Of course she had obtained the order against him in February, according to this report. At that point, he was supposed to be gunless. I wonder who didn't see to it he had turned them all in?

Since we have this law requiring the preemptive disarmament of unconvicted subjects of restraining orders, and as long as we have such laws, they must apply to everybody. It's been said somewhere that police officers, as a group, are three times as likely to commit a felony sometime in their life as the general population, and that they are much more likely to be involved in domestic violence, so if it ought apply to anybody...

Maybe courts ought to direct a search of cops' person and property at the moment a restraining order is served, since it's well known that virtually 100% of them have gunz. This is not the first time this has happened, and after Friday's report, I must say what happened Saturday does not surprise me.

Dave in Eugene

[Old Professer]

I went looking for more info on this guy other than he had succeeded Moose, but I got darned little -- no picture, no age, no real way to figure if maybe there was some job-related stress here; trying to fill big shoes, that sort of thing.