In the early, quiet hours of a Sunday morning in a Skyway neighborhood, the life of 45-year-old Antoine Matthews, a Black male, was tragically cut short. On February 11, 2018, the stillness of the residential area was broken by the sound of gunshots around 4:30 a.m. A woman residing on 66th Avenue South, familiar with Matthews, heard the disturbing sounds and upon venturing outside, discovered him mortally wounded in her driveway. Though she knew him, his presence at her home was unexpected.
Emergency medical services were called to the scene, and for 45 minutes they worked tirelessly, performing CPR in an effort to save his life, but their attempts were ultimately unsuccessful.
The sudden and violent death of Antoine Matthews left his family reeling with grief and searching for answers. His mother, Veronica Rowe, remembered her son as a good and pleasant person, not a violent man. She spoke of the joy he brought to others, describing him as someone who was always ready with a joke to make people laugh. The pain of losing her son was immense, a sentiment she expressed by saying that a mother should never have to bury her child. In the days and years that followed, she would continue to plead with the public for any information that could lead to the capture of the person or persons responsible for her son's death, desperate to understand why he was taken from them.
Despite the ongoing investigation by the King County Sheriff's Office and a cash reward offered by Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound for any information leading to an arrest, the case of Antoine Matthews' murder remains unsolved. As of the fifth anniversary of his death in February 2023, his killer had not been identified, and no arrests had been made. The mystery surrounding the circumstances of his death continues to cast a shadow over his family and the community, a painful reminder of a life lost to violence and a quest for justice that has yet to find its resolution. His family continues to hold out hope that someone with knowledge of the events of that fateful morning will come forward and provide the answers they so desperately seek.
