In the early hours of April 24, 2019, James Mureness, a 43-year-old White / Caucasian male, was fatally shot while sitting at a Pierce Transit bus stop near the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Washington. Mureness and another man were waiting at the stop in the 2900 block of East D Street shortly after midnight when a gunman approached. The assailant walked past the two men without a word, then turned and opened fire. Mureness was struck in the chest and died at the scene.
The other man seated with him was grazed by a bullet and suffered a head wound but was expected to survive.
The hours leading up to the deadly encounter were marked by the suspect's increasingly erratic behavior. Earlier in the evening of April 23, family members of 23-year-old Stephen Milner had called 911 to report he had fired several rounds into the ceiling of their home. Milner fled the residence with a. 22 pistol before officers could arrive. In the following hours, multiple witnesses reported seeing Milner acting strangely around Tacoma. He was seen carrying a pistol while watching a group of people outside a bar, and he entered a stranger's home to ask for a glass of water. He also ran from friends he encountered downtown, later telling police he believed they intended to rob him.
Following the shooting, an investigation quickly pointed to Milner as the suspect. When police located him later that same night and moved in to make an arrest, Milner shot himself in the forehead in an apparent suicide attempt. He survived the self-inflicted wound and was hospitalized. After his condition stabilized, Stephen Milner was booked into the Pierce County Jail. He was subsequently charged with first-degree murder for the death of James Mureness and attempted first-degree murder for the man who was wounded. Milner later claimed he shot the two men because he believed one of them had pulled out a knife and feared the other might also be armed.
