Tacoma police chief dies after shooting wife, himself

GIG HARBOR, Wash. -- The wife of Tacoma police chief David Brame was in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head after being shot by her husband, who then turned the gun on himself.

The apparent murder-suicide attempt in the parking lot of a shopping center happened Saturday, a day after abuse allegations in the couple's divorce case were publicized in media reports, authorities said.

Brame, 44, was pronounced dead at St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma, Pierce County Sheriff's Detective Ed Troyer said.

"It's a bad day for law enforcement," Troyer said. "This is somebody everybody knew and respected."

His wife, Crystal, was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where she was listed in critical condition.

"These are the kinds of things that are just nightmares," Mayor Bill Baarsma told a television station. "He was a proud and loving father. It was a beautiful couple."

The chief and his wife arrived in the parking lot in separate cars, with the couple's children, an 8-year-old girl and 5-year-old boy, riding with their mother. At one point, the chief brought the children to his car, then went back to his wife's car, where the pair engaged in a heated conversation, witnesses told authorities.

Witnesses reported hearing two quick shots from the parking lot, Troyer said. One witness said she saw people running around and screaming after the shots were fired.

"They had no idea. They were just running for safety," said Kirsten Oakland, 36, and a hair stylist at Harbor Cutter, a shop that looks out onto the parking lot.

The children ran toward their mother's car after hearing the shots, Troyer said.

'Daddy shot Mommy'

"I heard one of the children say, 'Daddy shot Mommy,' ... words to that effect," said Dana Mossman, who was standing in front of a coffee shop when she heard a "pop, pop" sound and then saw a woman lying in a pool of blood.

Another woman in the parking lot scooped up the children and took them into a video store in the strip mall. They were in the care of their mother's parents Saturday night, Troyer said.

Officers recovered a Glock .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun but Troyer would not say whether it was the chief's service weapon.

Catherine Woodard, assistant chief for criminal investigations, was named acting police chief. She is the first woman to head the police force in Tacoma, a city of 194,000.

Brame rose through the ranks to become police chief in January 2002. He was among officials who announced that a witness came forward with evidence that could tie two shootings in Tacoma to sniper shooting suspects John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo.

"He was exactly what you want, rose up through the ranks, worked very hard and made chief," Troyer said.

But documents in the couple's divorce case recounted a stormy, sometimes violent relationship, according to a Friday report in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Crystal Brame, 35, said her husband pointed his gun at her, trying to choke her and saying he "could snap my neck if he wanted to."

But Brame said he had been victimized in the relationship. He said his wife had a "ferocious temper" and was emotionally unstable.

In court papers, Brame said his wife scratched, bruised and pushed him during two fights in September 1996.

In her court filings, Crystal Brame, said her husband refused to let her use their credit card without permission, checked her car's odometer to monitor trips to the grocery store and left his loaded service revolver on a bedroom shelf within reach of their two children.

Shortly before they separated in February, Brame pointed his service revolver at her, "telling me, 'Accidents happen,'" according to the court documents.

The incidents were not reported to police and Brame denied choking or pointing his gun at his wife.

Crystal Brame filed a sworn statement on March 26, stating that Brame threatened her again, court papers said. She indicated she might ask for a restraining order, but the court file does not reflect that she actually did so.