In the late afternoon of December 9, 2018, a tragic series of events unfolded in Tacoma, Washington, culminating in the death of 19-year-old Evitan Debiaso, an Alaskan Native male from Seattle. Just before 5 p.m., a resident in the 1300 block of East 35th Street witnessed a man fall to the ground and promptly called the police. Upon their arrival, officers discovered the bodies of two young men in the street who had been fatally shot.
The victims were identified as Evitan Debiaso and 21-year-old Deonte Mitchner.
The investigation that followed uncovered a plan for a robbery that went horribly wrong. Debiaso, Mitchner, and two others, a 16-year-old and 19-year-old Jeremy Phillip Dubois, had allegedly conspired to rob a 13-year-old boy. The plan involved luring the younger teen to an alley under the pretense of selling him a gun for $275. Dubois drove the group to the location and remained in the car with Mitchner's two young children. Debiaso and Mitchner lay in wait in some bushes for the 13-year-old, who arrived with a friend. When Debiaso and Mitchner emerged and began to assault the 13-year-old's companion, the 13-year-old fled. In the ensuing chaos, gunshots were fired. The 16-year-old who was with Debiaso and Mitchner later told police that he knew his friends were not armed and believed the shots came from the 13-year-old's friend.
In the aftermath, both Jeremy Phillip Dubois and the 16-year-old were arrested and charged in connection with the attempted robbery. Dubois later pleaded guilty to second-degree robbery and was sentenced to a year in prison. The investigation into the homicides, which at one point involved the FBI, led to the arrest of a 16-year-old male suspect in connection with the shootings. However, prosecutors ultimately declined to file charges against him. The decision was based on the teen's claim of self-defense and the investigators' inability to definitively disprove it, partly due to rainy weather at the scene obscuring physical evidence. An autopsy revealed that Debiaso had been shot three times, with the fatal bullet entering his back. Despite this, the authorities suggested the shot could have occurred during a struggle. The weapon used in the shooting was never recovered, and the shooter was never officially identified or charged in the deaths of Evitan Debiaso and Deonte Mitchner.
