The Tacoma Police Department announced on Wednesday evening that an arrest had been made in response to an alleged drive-by shooting earlier in the day. While nothing about the suspect was announced other than him being a 53-year-old male, the arrest report indicated that the person was former NBA power forward Shawn Kemp.
According to the police, no one was injured in the shooting, which came after “shots were fired from a passing vehicle in the parking lot on the northeast side of the mall near the Courtesy Tire store.” But according to a new report by FOX 13 in Seattle, those close to Kemp allege that his use of a gun was done in self-defense after he learned the location of “property stolen from his car.”
Sources close to Kemp told FOX 13’s David Rose that he had property stolen from his car on Tuesday, tracked his iPhone to Tacoma on Wednesday and when he approached the vehicle, a suspect shot at him. He fired back in self-defense.
There was no mention of Kemp having property stolen or the shooting occurring in self-defense after someone shot at him first in the tweet by the Tacoma PD. They did, however, say an investigation into the incident was ongoing, and there have been no updates from the department’s Twitter account since the original announcement.