On a bright, sunny afternoon in Tacoma, Washington, on October 21, 2021, 19-year-old Emery Iese was sitting in the passenger seat of his mother’s car in an alley. His mother, 42-year-old Maria Nunez, was in the driver's seat, while his 22-year-old uncle, Raymond Williams, and his uncle's 22-year-old girlfriend, Natasha Brincefield, were nearby. It was a common scene for the friends and family to socialize in the backyard parking area.
Just four months prior, Emery had graduated from Chief Leschi School with plans to attend college and become a teacher. Known as the family comedian with a passion for music and art, he had recently started a job at Krispy Kreme and was training to be a professional boxer.
The normalcy of the autumn day was shattered at approximately 4:22 p.m. when a man approached the car and opened fire with a 9mm pistol. The gunman first shot Maria Nunez as she tried to get out of the vehicle. As the attack continued, Emery managed to get out of the car and ran for his life across the yard. The assailant chased after him. Emery tripped and fell, and as he lay on the ground with his hands up in a gesture of surrender, the gunman walked up to him and shot him at arm's length. Emery, his mother, and Natasha Brincefield were pronounced dead at the scene; Raymond Williams died later at a hospital. All four victims died from multiple gunshot wounds, primarily to the head.
The investigation into the quadruple homicide revealed no immediate motive. The victims had no known connections to gangs or drugs, and the attack did not appear to be a robbery. A week after the killings, police arrested 22-year-old Maleke Dominique Pate, who lived about half a mile from the crime scene. Investigators were unable to find any significant connection between Pate and the four people he killed; the only link they discovered was that he had been in the fifth grade with one of the victims. A search of Pate's home revealed a handgun believed to be the murder weapon.
In March 2024, a jury found Maleke Pate guilty of four counts of aggravated first-degree murder. The conviction carried a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. During the trial, prosecutors described the killings as "execution-style," carried out with no cause or emotion. Pate was subsequently sentenced to four consecutive life sentences. The reason for the violent and random attack that ended the lives of Emery Iese and his three family members remains a mystery to investigators and the grieving families.
