TACOMA, Wash. — Tacoma police are searching for a “vehicle of interest” in the deadly crash that took the life of Washington State Patrol Trooper Tara-Marysa Guting on Friday night.
According to a release sent out by the Tacoma Police Department on Sunday afternoon, Trooper Guting was struck by a vehicle while investigating an unrelated collision on the on-ramp to southbound SR-509 from Port of Tacoma Road. The initial impact caused the trooper to be thrown into the right travel lane of southbound SR-509, where the trooper was incapacitated and lying motionless in the roadway.
A short time later, a second vehicle, a dark-colored pickup truck, struck the trooper in the right lane. Tacoma police say that the vehicle then continued southbound on SR-509.
Police are now searching for the truck as a “vehicle of interest.”
The truck is described as a dark pickup truck, possibly black in color. It is believed to be either a Chevrolet Avalanche (four-door) or a Cadillac Escalade EXT-style pickup (four-door). The vehicle may have tinted windows, chrome door handles, and chrome running boards. No license plate information is available.
Police ask that anyone who witnessed the collision, observed the vehicle of interest, or may have dash-camera footage from southbound SR-509 in the area of Port of Tacoma Road around 7:20–7:30 p.m. contact investigators.
“This second vehicle - it’s dark, it’s rainy, there’s a lot going on in that area - also struck the trooper,” Boyd said. “We really want to talk to that person to kind of put this puzzle together completely.”
Tacoma police are asking anyone with information on the truck or its driver to reach out to Crimestoppers at (800) 222-TIPS. A $1,000 reward is offered for information leading to the driver’s arrest.
“Being able to help the state patrol with investigating this case is really important to us,” Boyd said. “It is important to the troopers, to the community, to the family that we get it right.”
Guting was 29 years old and graduated from the academy a little over a year ago.
Troopers, officers, and firefighters paid a solemn tribute to Guting this weekend, saluting her flag-draped body as it was removed from St. Joseph Medical Center.
“Trooper Tara-Marysa Guting was out doing what she loved that day. I’m still trying to process it myself, if I’m being honest,” Trooper Kameron Watts of WSP said. “It’s not something I’ve spoken to in the media a lot, but it’s affecting all of us in Tacoma, and her family is going through a lot.”
There is no word on whether the first driver to hit Guting will face charges.