‘I wasn’t there to protect her’: Family mourns mother of seven who was gunned down in Tacoma

TACOMA, Wash. — Family members of murder victim, 32-year-old Ngaire Tusi, were in court Friday to face the man accused of killing her.

The court requested $2 million dollars in bail for suspect 32-year-old Muhammad Salanoa. He was arrested Wednesday after about six weeks on the run.

Tusi is a mother to seven kids. When she was shot and killed in December, her murder shook the South Sound.

“My regret is I wasn’t there to protect her, to stop this from happening,” said Louie Lese, a family member of the victim who was in court on Friday. “I hope justice comes down hard on him,” he said.

Court documents are also revealing new details about a possible motive. They say Tusi was helping investigators track down the suspect in a Tacoma rape case.

The complicated chain of events started on Nov. 18 when a woman was raped near the Tacoma mall. Police say the suspect was 22-year-old James Salanoa – the nephew of the murder suspect, Muhammed Salanoa.

About 10 days later, investigators tracked Salanoa down, and deputies ended up shooting and killing him in South Hill.

Then three weeks later on Dec. 18, Tusi was shot in the head and killed while sitting at a gazebo at Oakland Madrona Park.

Court documents say, “The victim’s mother reported that defendant M. Salanoa was upset about people cooperating with police and providing them with information about his nephew.”

The charging documents also say, “detectives spoke to several people who advised they knew the victim, and said she was murdered as retaliation for providing information to law enforcement.”

Tacoma police say they are still investigating and have not confirmed if retaliation was the motive for the shooting.

“It’s a very sad and unfortunate incident where a mother was taken away from her kids,” said Detective William Muse, a spokesperson for Tacoma Police.

Police arrested Muhammed Salanoa after working with the FBI to track him down.

Muse says despite the arrest, they are still looking for more information to fill in holes in the case.

“It’s really important that members of the community do what they can to fight and take control of this, and help us,” Muse said.

Lese says he believes the murder suspect and his cousin, Tusi, knew each other.

“She was a fighter. She always spoke her mind, wasn’t scared of nothing. So the only way for her to let her guard down was through friendship,” Lese said. “It just shows you how some people can manipulate friendship. Unfortunately, that’s what he used. He used that friendship to take her life,” he said.

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