Prosecutors charge Lacey road rage shooting suspect with second-degree murder
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Prosecutors charge Tucker S. Shirk with second-degree murder and related counts.
- Court records allege Shirk shot Eddie Park after a road-rage altercation.
- Judge ordered Shirk held without bail; defense cites significant self-defense claim.
A man accused of killing another driver in a road-rage shooting in Lacey pleaded not guilty at arraignment Friday.
Prosecutors charged 24-year-old Tucker S. Shirk with second-degree murder, second-degree assault and first-degree manslaughter.
Court records say Shirk fatally shot 48-year-old Eddie Park the night of Dec. 19 after the men, both from Lacey, had a road-rage altercation. There were two children in Park’s vehicle at the time of the shooting, court records allege.
Thurston County Superior Court Judge John Skinder ordered Shirk held without bail at his initial court appearance Monday. Shirk was back in court Friday for his arraignment.
Court records do not yet list an attorney for him.
Public defender Diana Wildland, who represented Shirk at his initial appearance Monday, told the court that there was a “significant self-defense claim,” The Olympian reported.
She told the court that Shirk, an active-duty service member in the U.S. Army, has lived here for four years and that he and his wife are about to have a baby.
Court records give this account of what happened:
Shirk was on his way home in a black GMC Terrain with dinner from Chipotle for he and his wife when Park allegedly cut him off in a gray Tesla near the Marvin Road overpass above Interstate 5.
Shirk said he honked and flipped off Park. He alleged that Park slowed down in front of him, passed him and flipped him off, and ended up driving aggressively behind Shirk. Shirk allegedly kept speeding up and slowing down.
Ultimately, Shirk alleged, Park got out of his vehicle and approached him when the vehicles were next to one another in the 2400 block of Marvin Road Northeast.
Shirk yelled: “Get in your car, I will shoot you, get in your car,” according to the court records
Park allegedly responded: “Shoot me, shoot me.”
Shirk pulled a handgun, he alleges Park tried to grab it, and after that Shirk shot him in the neck. Shirk called 911. Court records allege that he refused to perform CPR on Park, who died at the scene.
Olympian archives contributed to this report.
