Tacoma police chief shoots wife, kills himself

Seattle Post-Intelligencer ^

[ATCNavyRetiree]

Tacoma police chief shoots wife, kills himself

By LEWIS KAMB, PHUONG CAT LE, ANGELA GALLOWAY and RUTH TEICHROEB SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTERS

GIG HARBOR - Tacoma's police chief shot his wife and then himself in the parking lot of a strip mall Saturday afternoon while the couple's two young children were nearby.

David Brame died at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tacoma about 6 p.m. His wife Crystal was in critical condition at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

On Friday, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that Crystal Brame, 35, had obtained a temporary restraining order in February against her husband. In subsequent court papers, she had accused him of pointing his service revolver at her and trying to choke her during two separate incidents in the past six months.

The couple were going through a divorce.

Brame, a veteran officer who rose through the ranks to become chief in January 2002, denied those allegations in court papers filed in King County Superior Court last month.

Saturday's shooting happened at about 3:10 p.m., said Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer.

"We don't believe other people are involved," Troyer said. "The victims were the chief of the Tacoma Police Department and his wife. We believe he shot her and then shot himself."

Crystal Brame was in a black Toyota Camry with the couple's two children when David Brame approached the vehicle, authorities said. The two had arranged to meet in the shopping mall parking lot. David Brame took the two children - 8-year-old Haley and 5-year-old David - to his burgundy Toyota Camry, which was parked nearby. He then returned to the car Crystal Brame was in. He got in also and a short time later two shots were fired, authorities said.

NOTE: This story has been updated since it was originally posted.

"The kids were screaming," said Kirsten Oakland, who works in a hair salon at the mall. "Who would have thought? Awful. This affected the entire community in a split second."

An off-duty King County paramedic was the first to arrive on the scene and begin treatment.

"It appeared she (Crystal) managed to open the door and fell down to the ground," Troyer said. "And the paramedic pulled up right next to her in the car."

Neither child was hurt. They were with their mother's parents Saturday night, Troyer said.

George Sharp, a supervisor for the Rite Aid store, said almost nobody in the store actually heard the shooting. Many learned of it from customers and employees coming in for their shifts who had learned about the shooting from news reports.

"A lot of people expressed shock that it did happen in Gig Harbor and the customers and the employees wish that it hadn't happened but they didn't really feel any more threatened as they would if it were a drive-by or it were a random act," Sharp said.

"I think that people are saddened it got to that stage and unhappy that it happened here, and unhappy that it happened at all."

Troyer said one of the Brame children got out of the car and went into a nearby Hollywood Video store. Witnesses took the other child to the store too.

Jesse Hentz, assistant manager of the Hollywood Video, said: "I feel really bad. And I want the family to know that people care about them."

In court papers, Crystal Brame portrayed her husband as controlling and jealous, refusing to let her use their credit card without permission and checking her car's odometer to monitor trips to the grocery store.

She also accused him of leaving his loaded service revolver on a bedroom shelf within reach of their two children.

Her fear increased last November when she alleged that the 44-year-old Brame "choked me and threatened that he could snap my neck if he wanted to." It was the fourth time that year he'd tried to choke her, each time sending flowers later to apologize, she said.

And just before they separated in February, she alleged in court documents that Brame pointed his service revolver at her, "telling me 'accidents happen.' "

She did not report either incident to police.

David Brame had maintained he was the real victim of domestic violence during his 11-year marriage. He said he reported the assaults to police -- first to his boss, then-interim Chief Ken Monner and to an officer who photographed his bruises; then to police in Gig Harbor, where he was living at the time.

Both times David Brame insisted that police not arrest his wife or even investigate his allegations - even though a state law requires officers to arrest anyone accused of domestic violence if the complaint is credible.

He explained his unusual behavior in court documents by saying he wanted to "protect himself" in case his wife ever tried to malign him with false abuse allegations.

Tacoma City Councilman Mike Lonergan, who sits on the council's public safety committee, said he had a hard time believing the shooting had happened.

"We knew David from his professional side. This is a total shock," Lonergan said Saturday. "He presented himself as a very together person, business-like and very likeable. This entire thing is hard to grasp."

Although Lonergan said the usually outgoing Brame had been withdrawn and seemed depressed lately, he had no idea what was going on at home.

"To know David Brame took the action he did today shows that there was a whole lot beneath the surface we couldn't see," Lonergan said.

Ken Bunting, executive editor of the P-I, said "this is a tragic development in lives that, from all accounts, have been troubled for quite some time. These events are not only painful for the family, but for the community and all who have the responsibility to ask the difficult questions about it. Domestic violence is never a comfortable topic."

Paul Pastor, Pierce County sheriff, announced Brame's death from outside St. Joseph's hospital. He said only that Brame had died of a gunshot wound; no other details were given.

"This is terribly sad news for this city and this community," Pastor said.

Carlos Sambrano, a childhood friend of the chief, went to the hospital to support the family. He said he and Brame played baseball at Lincoln High School.

"He never appeared to be a violent person," said Sambrano, who described his friend as a "class act."

Visibly distraught over the news of his friend's death, Sambrano said: "What's this world coming to."

[kcvl]

Tacoma's top cop dead

Tacoma, Wash., Police Chief David Brame was killed and his wife was injured in a shooting Saturday, a day after abuse allegations in the couple's divorce case were publicized in media reports. ''The probability is strong that the chief shot his wife and then himself,'' Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said. Crystal Brame was in critical contition. On Friday, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that documents in the couple's divorce case recounted a stormy, sometimes violent relationship.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Women have been so affected by the man-hating of the feminists/lesbian/NOW hegemony in this culture, that they don't even realize when they are being unfair. In that respect you have learned another thing from leftist culture--personally attack anyone who disagrees with you, and don't even consider that your own views might be influenced by the feminista sickness that pervades this society.

You couldn't be more wrong about me. I love men. My best friends, all my life, have been male; I generally get along with men better than I do women.

I am also educated about dysfunctional relationships. I understand what causes them, and I have knowledge of the steps people can take to keep them from escalating the way this one clearly did.

Attempted murder (and we'll see if she lives) is a little more serious than that, however.

Your defense of this man and excuse-making on his behalf IS "bizzaro", and I applaud HairOfTheDog for cutting to the chase and calling it what it is. I don't see the point in using more words than that to describe your position.

[Orlando]

Cake_crumb,, wait a minute. I never said "all women are evil", No,no,nooooooooo. The current family courts and the corrupt Child Support is. These systems are the root of the current problems regrading fathers, and why fathers & Men are killing more. Let's not forget the snipers DC/Maryland
case. The Child Support Systems makes Billions of dollars,
and alot of it goes to PAC funds like Boxer(D), former US Senator Bradley(D), and others in order to make more laws against fathers and make more money & Laws to punish the GOOD fathers.

Like for example: In 1986, The Bradley amendment (USF 422, sec. 666) to the CSEP forade retroactive downward adjustments (Like the Unemployed,sick,Soldiers,etc..)to child support orders. LOCKING fathers into a potential LIFETIME of INDEBTEDNESS. The arrears was thenn charge 12%
Interest rates, and Fees, and all of your tax returnns were taken. It was the demoncrats with there demon friends
of N.O.W. who made it, the way it is...

There are fathers now, who are still paying child support
even if he had custody of the children. Why, arears and thanks to Boxer and others. The father must pay-off the AFDC the mother collected in the past, onn top of that.
In the inner city for example, it's impossible to pay all that, and this is why crime is rasing, and drug use,etc..
is out of control.

just one pc of the billion pc puzzle.

[stands2reason]

Instead of looking at the facts (the fact being that he shot this woman in front of their children) you're making excuses for him.

But he's a man. He couldn't possibly do any wrong. It had to be that vile woman who drove him to it. (/sarcasm)

[stands2reason]

Your husband must have you well trained...

[kcvl]

Posted on Sun, Apr. 27, 2003

Police chief dies after shooting wife, self


SEATTLE - Tacoma Police Chief David Brame died Saturday after he shot his 35-year-old estranged wife and himself in a strip-mall parking lot in Gig Harbor, Wash.

Brame, 44, was taken to St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma where he died shortly before 6 p.m. Saturday.

His wife, Crystal, was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle where she was in extremely critical condition Saturday night with a bullet wound in the head.

The couple's two young children were in the parking lot at the time of shooting, but it wasn't immediately known if they witnessed the violence.

Brame and his wife were in the parking lot to exchange the children from one parent to the other. The couple had been going through a contentious divorce, with allegations of abuse from both sides.

Crystal Brame did not have a protective order against her husband, according to police and court records. Though there was a standard restraining order that protected the couple's assets during the divorce, she had said in divorce documents that she had chosen not to obtain a no-contact order, against the advice of her lawyer.

About 3:10 p.m. Saturday, Brame pulled into the mall parking lot to meet his wife, who had arrived in her car with the couple's 8-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son, Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said. Brame put the children in his car, then returned to his wife's car, got in the passenger seat, then fired his gun twice.

Brame was found in the passenger seat with a fatal head wound. His wife had climbed out of the car before collapsing on the pavement.

A witness, Gary Pullin, 41, of Gig Harbor, was waiting in his car for his wife, Mary, to get off work at a business in the shopping center. As his wife was getting into their car, he heard two gunshots. The scene that followed was chaos.

Pullin told his wife to get in the car. As the couple drove off, Pullin realized he had been parked only four stalls from where the shots were fired. He then stopped his car.

"She was on her back, and there was blood everywhere. … I watched her move her hand up to her head," Pullin said.

Pullin said he then saw a woman quickly herd the children away from the scene. He also saw a bystander pick up the handgun and then make a call on his cellphone. Many other people were screaming and running from the parking lot.

Bystanders hurried the Brame children into a video store in the mall to wait for police.

At the time of the shootings, the Brames were three months into a bitter divorce, with each making claims and counterclaims against the other.

For example, Crystal Brame alleged that she was "very afraid" of her husband because he was controlling and threatening - pointing a gun at her, keeping the couple's checkbook from her, insisting on going with her to routine doctor exams and checking her car odometer to make sure she had not strayed from permitted errands.

David Brame denied all of his wife's allegations, and said she had a "ferocious temper" that manifested itself in physical attacks, constant verbal abuse and threats to "drag him through the mud" and ruin his police career.

But Crystal Brame's longtime friends aren't buying any of the police chief's allegations, especially now that he shot her.

"If you wanted a mom, Crystal would be the perfect one," said Brad Chatfield, a state Senate employee from Olympia who is a lifelong friend. "She's one of the most thoughtful people I've ever met."

Brame's allegations "are categorically not true," Chatfield said. "That's not in her character. She doesn't have the capacity for that kind of anger and violence. She was not the one with the gun. She was not the supposedly trained police chief."

Crystal Brame, nee Judson, grew up in Tacoma and graduated from Mount Tahoma High School. She attended the University of Washington, where she studied criminal justice, her friends said.

Right out of college, she got a job working for the Tacoma Police Department and the local courts. That's when she met David Brame, a rising star in the department who had been divorced from his first wife since 1987.

After they married, she quit her job to stay home to raise the couple's children, friends said.

"She gave up everything for her children and for David," Chatfield said. "And that's why this is so shocking."

According to a Pierce County Sheriff's Department police-dispatch report, Crystal Brame called a sheriff's dispatch center the night of April 11 to allege that four hours earlier David Brame, accompanied by Assistant Police Chief Catherine Woodard, who was named last night to serve as acting chief of the department, came to Crystal's parents' home in the gated Canterwood neighborhood of Gig Harbor.

According to Crystal Brame's report, she was living at her parents' home "for safety reasons." She alleged that Brame and Woodard gained access to the secure neighborhood "under false pretenses." She told the police dispatcher that Woodard was not supposed to "be near her" because of "intimidation and threats."

Sheriff's spokesman Troyer said the dispatcher did not send an officer to the residence because Crystal Brame had called hours after the chief and his assistant had left, and she had no proof that Woodard or Chief Brame had threatened or intimidated her.

Crystal Brame didn't have a court order forbidding either her husband or Woodard from contacting her, and Chief Brame had simply come to the residence to pick up the children for a planned weekend visit, Troyer said. Under terms of their separation, he was supposed to bring along another adult when he contacted his wife, so he brought his assistant chief.

Tacoma police spokesman Jim Mattheis last night said Crystal Brame's allegations of threats by Woodard weren't true, and the department wouldn't discuss the matter. "There's been enough damage done already," Mattheis said.

David Brame, who was named Tacoma's police chief in late 2001, was described as a trusted insider committed to Tacoma, someone who could build bridges between the department and the community.

The Tacoma native had been assistant police chief before being named chief. He also had served as commander of the criminal investigations division and headed up the department's internal-affairs division.

For six years, Brame was chief contract negotiator for the police union, representing patrol officers.

He earned a bachelor degree in public administration from the University of Puget Sound.

The shootings came a day after media reports about the Brames' bitter separation.

"I blame the news media for driving this over the edge above and beyond what you needed to in a tabloid fashion," said Patrick Frantz, president of Tacoma's police union.

Frantz said Brame was "a dynamite chief" who was implementing new policies and making good connections with the community.

The stress of being a police chief and the publicity of his marital troubles must have come to a head, Frantz surmised. "I'm not saying he's not responsible. I'm very disappointed in what he's done," he said.

"He's let the department down. He's let the community down."

[HairOfTheDog]

:~D

Attempted murder (and we'll see if she lives) is a little more serious than that, however.

Awww... It's just a way of expressing rage... Some people just get mean!

[kcvl]

David Brame in turn claimed his wife had a fierce temper and had threatened to ruin his police career.

News reports had detailed the couple's marital problems just a day before the shootings, which police union leader Patrick Frantz blamed(her) for pushing Brame over the edge, according to the Seattle Times.

[HairOfTheDog]

Wow.... That article has even more twists in it.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Though my situation was not as serious as yours, I had a boyfriend who was physically abusive (his fits of rage seemed to correspond precisely with the time his stash ran out) when I was in my early twenties and living no where near any family at all. I can understand how angry some of the posts on this thread must have made you.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Or blowing off steam, relieving stress - kinda like hunting. (Unbelievable.)

[conservative cat]

What makes some women put up with abuse for years, anyone who works with these women victims will tell of how even when they are in domestic abuse centers, many leave and go back for more abuse. Maybe it's self-esteem? --they feel they deserve to be punished? Maybe the need to "have a husband" to provide a living? Or the social status of having a husband?

The reason many women wait it out is simple- the most dangerous time for a woman being abused is when she actually leaves/separates from/divorces an abuser. I believe it's somewhere around 75% of woman killed by their abusers are killed during that time frame (which this case shows perfectly). Also, many men who abuse, also abuse the children, and a woman is more likely to be able to protect her children if she is with them.

I am in the process of going through a divorce with an abuser AND it is not fun. These men are control freaks who can't stand the loss of control that comes with a divorce.

[stands2reason]

We all form our opinions based in part on our own experiences.

Too bad you coudn't base it on the known facts in his case. You have already decided that this woman drove her husband to kill her.

[Sally'sConcerns]

I started to say I wasn't angry but in thinking about it, I am. There appears to be several posters who think she deserved what she got. All because they want to make him a victim too. He had a choice and decided to kill.

I'm reminded of the saying in Alcoholics Anonymous in that no one can force another to do anything. As the former spouse of a recovering alcoholic, if I somehow managed to hold his mouth open and pour alcohol in his mouth, he still has the responsibility and decision to swallow. If he's serious about his sobriety, he won't swallow.

It all boils down to personal responsibility and not playing the blame game.

[conservative cat]

There is also such a thing as court-supervised visitation ---but from other cases I've seen, a restraining order means that there is no visitation until after custody and visitation are legally resolved.

There are different levels of restraining orders and obtaining one through the divorce process is usually weaker than obtaining one through just getting a restraining order. My ex's initial restraining order said he wasn't to disturb my peace or harass me. After he assaulted me in a parking lot (neutral location to swap the children mandated by the court), the prosecutor's office has bumped it up to a "no-hostile contact" order, which just means he's not allowed to assault me, again. Sarcastic LOL.

As far as the children, Washington state requires extensive documentation to keep one parent from the child, EVEN if the parent has a past history of violence towards the other parent. It would need to be proved that parent was a definite threat to the children, not just to the other parent.

[tuna_battle_slight_return]

"now with their parents dead,"

I didn't see where it said the mom died; it appears she was shot but lived.

[SuziQ]

...Frantz surmised. "I'm not saying he's not responsible. I'm very disappointed in what he's done," he said.
"He's let the department down. He's let the community down."

I don't give a flip about the 'department' or the 'community'!! What about those kids? They have to live with that image of their father shooting their mother, then killing himself.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

I started to say I wasn't angry but in thinking about it, I am. There appears to be several posters who think she deserved what she got.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a "You Made Me Hit You Club" on FR - and oddly, there seem to be more women in it than men.

[HairOfTheDog]

You are right. She is still alive, but in critical condition with a head wound. I don't think she is out of the woods. We'll see.