Man sentenced for 2021 Tacoma quadruple murder, removed from courtroom for disruptions

A man convicted of killing four people in Tacoma in October 2021 was sentenced Friday.

Malek Pate kept disrupting the sentencing in court, and the judge ordered him out of the courtroom before the hearing was over.

Pate may have known his conviction would guarantee life in prison, as he repeatedly talked and mumbled, and it appeared he also threatened Pierce County prosecutors.

Families of his victims were also in court, and Pate became so disruptive he was ordered into a secure separate room to watch the proceedings on a Zoom call.

In March, a jury found Pate guilty of shooting four random people without warning.

The four victims were behind a townhouse when Pate ambushed and shot all four of them.

The youngest ran away from the shooting, injured, but Pate chased him down and killed him, too.

Tacoma detectives never discovered a motive in the case.

The trial had been delayed over questions about Pate’s mental competency.

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