hey thats my neighbor

[erik]

wicked dude! thats like 2 blocks from my house!!!!!!!!!!

Phone tip leads police to body in South Tacoma alley DEAD MAN: It's Tacoma's first homicide of 2002

Stacey Burns; The News Tribune

Guided by an anonymous tip, Tacoma police discovered a dead man Wednesday morning in the alley of an older South Tacoma neighborhood.

Investigators believe the man died of multiple gunshot wounds, police spokesman Jim Mattheis said. Pierce County medical investigators have not released the man's name pending notification of his family.

Police have no motive but were working some leads Wednesday.

The man's body appeared to have been dumped in the 6400 block of South Montgomery Street, Mattheis said. His pants had been pulled down to his knees and his blue shirt lifted above his waist.

An anonymous caller phoned 911 at 7:08 a.m. from a pay phone outside a convenience store at South 56th and Birmingham streets, Mattheis said.

Detectives plan to search through surveillance videos from the store for leads in the investigation.

Detectives scoured the South Tacoma neighborhood for information about what might have happened as forensic technicians photographed and measured the taped-off crime scene. Investigators believe the body was put in the alley sometime early Wednesday, Mattheis said.

Neighbor Tina Yorks said the body was between her and her neighbor's back yard, near a green shed; neither she nor her husband heard anything unusual during the night.

She started hearing neighborhood dogs barking around 7:30 a.m. When she looked out her window, she saw police officers and detectives swarming the area.

"I don't want to live here now," said Yorks, who's been renting her house for the past eight months. "I don't enjoy seeing dead bodies, especially when I have kids."

The man's death is the first homicide of the year in Tacoma. There were 17 homicides in the city in 2001.