UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. — A man was shot multiple times and killed Tuesday afternoon.
It happened behind a pizza place at South 56th Street and South Orchard Street in the back corner of a strip mall. Friends of the victims who showed up to the shooting identified him as Phillip Little.
“My best friend just died, and I don’t know what to do,” said Heather Acker.
“If anyone knows anything please come forward,” Jordan Kane said. “This is someone’s family. This is someone’s life they just took for no reason.”
People living in nearby apartments say they heard six or seven shots just before three o’clock in the afternoon. Detectives said the victim was hit multiple times and whatever happened likely involved multiple hand guns, though only one weapon was recovered.
Two men in black pants were seen running from the strip mall after the shooting, said Detective Ed Troyer of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office. Troyer also said the neighborhood where the shooting happened has serious drug and gang problems.
“But to have something this bold happen during the daylight, with this many people around, is something that doesn’t happen often,” Troyer said.
Detectives are still working to figure out if the known neighborhood issues played a role in Little’s death. Investigators did tow away a Mercedes Little was showing off in recent days.
“If he did something wrong it could have been taken care of in a different way, because talking his life like that was not the answer,” said Laura Parsons, another one of Little’s friends.
Little’s girlfriend said detectives are investigating a recording of a phone call between the victim and some people he was meeting up with Tuesday.
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