In the early morning hours of October 9, 2022, Gregory Hughes, a 51-year-old Black/African American male, was at the Fern Hill Terrace Apartments in Tacoma, Washington, staying with a friend who was also a coworker. Shortly after 2:00 a.m., Hughes, a carpenter and handyman, stepped outside to have a smoke. About twenty minutes later, a sudden shout of "I live here! I live here!" pierced the quiet, followed by the sound of five gunshots.
First responders arrived at the scene in the 200 block of South 80th Street to find Hughes unresponsive on the ground. Despite their life-saving efforts, he was pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy later determined that he had died from multiple gunshot wounds to his back, and a trail of blood suggested he was running from his attacker when he was killed.
The investigation into the death of Hughes, a father of nine known affectionately as "Pooh," led Tacoma police detectives to a resident of the same apartment complex. Using surveillance footage from the area and descriptions from witnesses who saw a man leaving the scene, authorities identified 35-year-old Evans Vailolo as the primary suspect. There appeared to be no prior connection between the two men. On October 18, 2022, just over a week after the shooting, a SWAT team assisted in the arrest of Vailolo at a residence in Tacoma. He was subsequently charged with two counts of second-degree murder and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.
Evans Vailolo remained in custody for two years awaiting trial, with bail set at $1 million. When the case finally went to court in November 2024, the jury heard the evidence presented by the prosecution, which relied on witness descriptions and surveillance video that showed a man matching Vailolo's description in the area before and after the gunshots. However, the defense argued that the case was not proven beyond a reasonable doubt, highlighting that the shooting itself was not captured on video and that crucial pieces of the narrative were missing. After deliberation, the jury acquitted Vailolo of all charges, including first-degree murder, second-degree murder, and unlawful possession of a firearm, and he was found not guilty. The verdict left the family of Gregory Hughes, who remembered him as a caring father who held his family together, deeply disappointed and without the closure they had sought.
