Army Ranger Veteran remembers defending his home against alleged gang attack in Tacoma shootout

TACOMA, Wash. - In 1989, a group of Army Rangers, along with their neighbors, bunkered down in a home on South Ash Street in Tacoma and defended themselves from an onslaught of gunfire from alleged gang members.

Tacoma is seeing an increase in violent crime. So far this year, there have been 39 homicides (including 3 police shootings). This is the most homicides the city has ever seen.

However, violent crime also plagued Tacoma decades ago in the late 80s and 90s.

 "The neighborhood just kept getting progressively worse, and for me, deploy and come back and then see how much worse it had gotten in that short period of time and how they were harassing the neighbors. Like, these guys were trying to take over the neighborhood," said Bill Foulk

In 1987, Foulk made the decision to lay down roots in the city of Tacoma.

At the time, Foulk was a Sergeant with the Army Rangers. He purchased a home along South Ash Street.

"When I bought this house, it was condemned: no windows, no doors, no wiring, no plumbing, nothing. I wanted a fixer-upper," he said.

Foulk put time and energy into making the condemned building his home, as well as making Ash Street his community.

However, in 1989. Foulk says drugs and gangs infested his street.

He says nothing was being done to stop the criminal activity that was now infiltrating his neighborhood.

 "Unfortunately, there was little the police could do. I mean we’d have like, I can remember in July, we had a gang related shooting, Crips and Blood, a shooting on the street out here," he said. "And typically you would call the police and no one would ever show up," Foulk added.

Foulk says he and his neighbors took action.

He says they started taking pictures of criminal activity, writing down license plate numbers, and on September 23, 1987, Foulk organized a cookout at his house in an effort to get attention on the criminal issues on the street. 

"We start, like, three in the afternoon. All the good neighborhood families came. They brought their kids. We’re cooking burgers. You know, just having a great neighborhood bbq. Then, we started getting harassed by those guys across the street," said Foulk.

Foulk said the group was throwing things like bottles and fruit at the people at his cookout.

He says he, and several of his Army Ranger friends walked across the street and told the group to leave the neighbors alone.

However, instead of backing down Faulk says the group threatened to burn down his home and shoot him.

 "By 6:30, a guy comes rolling down the street and fires a shot into the air, like that’s the warning short," said Foulk.

Foulk says with a house full of guests, including families, he realized trouble might be coming. So he called the base.

"Hey, this is Sergeant Foulk. I’m at home. I’m about to come under attack and I need every available Ranger at my house now," he said.

Foulk tells FOX 13 News about 15 Army Rangers showed up at his house, joining the ranks of his neighbors who decided to stay to defend the home.

Foulk says they began to prepare for an attack, which he says came in like a blitzkrieg.

 "It was like being on a military firing range when somebody says commence fire. And just all of a sudden, it was pow pow pow, gunfire from every direction. You could hear bullets hitting the house," he said.

In total at least 300 rounds fired.

Foulk says the majority of the shooting came from the alleged gang members

According to reports from 30 years ago, no one was injured in the shooting. However, Foulk says several attackers were hit.

"If a gang member got shot, they didn’t lay around waiting for EMS. Their gang buddies took them away. Wherever, whatever they did with them," he said.

Eventually, police arrived, and the scene was cleared.

According to reports, two alleged gang members were arrested, but no charges were filed against Foulk or any of his friends.

"We were told by the police and others that we were legally right in what we did. We defended ourselves form a heinous crime, and there’s nothing wrong with they way went down. And it’s not like they didn’t have a whole load of witness to say, ‘this is exactly how it what happened,’ because there was 30 people here to tell the same story," he said.

Thirty years later, Foulk still lives in the same home. There is even a scar from the battle, a bullet hole that was intentionally left as a reminder of the day.

"It was a wakeup call for politicians, and for the administration in the police department," he said.

Change eventually came to Tacoma, and the violence subsided. However, in the last few years the deadly crime is returning. Over the last few years, homicides have been increasing.

• 2017: 12
• 2018: 18
• 2019: 23
• 2020: 31
• 2021: 34
• 2022: 39 (including 3 police shootings)     

In comparison to 2017, there has been more than a 200% increase in homicides in 2022. 

 "It’s out of control, and I think that, you know, I think that the political environment is exactly the same as it is back, you know, in the late 80s. Where, you know, they don’t want to deal with the problem. They don’t want to talk about it. They don’t even want to deal with it. They don’t even want to admit that there’s a problem. They just thinking, like, hoping that it is going to go away, and it’s not going to go away. It’s only going to get worse," he said.

FOX 13 News reached out to the city of Tacoma regarding the increase in crime. They responded with this statement from the mayor:

"Like many in our community, I am troubled and frustrated by violent incidents in Tacoma. Incidents like these cause ripples of trauma that affect the families of those involved, our first responders, and the community at large, and we are taking steps to address these impacts. Along with implementation of our Violent Crime Reduction Plan, we are increasing funding to our intervention programs, and working with our community to identify and address the underlying conditions that contribute to violent crime throughout Tacoma. Though we are ‘winning some days’ as my Chief would say, and the data is showing some positive progress in lowering violent crime, if our residents do not feel safe then we have not met our community’s needs. We need to create a community where every individual feels safe in Tacoma. Chief Moore will provide a comprehensive update on the Violent Crime Reduction Plan on November 1st at noon, and I invite you to tune in then."