Pierce County Washington man charged with murder of off-duty security guard
Pierce County Washington October 7, 2023
A 33-year-old man has been charged in Pierce County Superior Court with shooting a person multiple times in early September.
Keenan David Blakely was arrested Wednesday before noon in the Sept. 10 death of Joseph Briggs in the 5200 block of South Tacoma Way.
Blakely is facing two counts of second-degree murder, second-degree assault and first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm. Blakely pleaded not guilty at his arraignment at Pierce County Superior Court on Thursday afternoon.
During his arraignment, Blakely said he was representing himself, but the court commissioner said she would appoint an attorney until the next hearing.
The commissioner set his bail at $1.5 million.
On an unrelated matter, Blakely was arraigned for first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm charge for a June 30, 2022, incident. His bail for that case was set for $100,000. Blakely is being held at the Pierce County Jail.
CHARGING DOCUMENTS Tacoma Police Department officers were dispatched on Sept. 10 at 2:01 a.m. to an incident where a victim was shot outside of a lounge. A man later identified as Briggs was lying on the ground in a parking lot. He was shot in the chest, and a witness was attempting to apply pressure to his wounds when officers arrived, according to the declaration for determination of probable cause. A witness said three men had been heckling her and her sister. The men then started to beat them up, and, during the altercation, Briggs came out to help the women. Briggs was a security guard at the lounge but was off-duty at the time. He was declared deceased at the scene, court documents show. Briggs was fighting with a man who shot him multiple times in the chest.
The suspect and the other men left following the shooting, prosecutors wrote. There were multiple shell casings recovered between two parked cars near where Briggs was lying. One of the cars, a gray Jeep Cherokee, was allegedly determined to be Blakely’s, court documents said. Prosecutors wrote that through video surveillance, a man later revealed to be Blakely was on the scene before and after the shooting. The shooting was not shown on video. Blakely was identified by detectives from the video due to a tip. Later on, a witness at the lounge was presented with photos of possible suspects and allegedly pointed to a picture of Blakley, saying he was the shooter. The witness said Blakely had a gun and shot it at Briggs because the victim had him in a headlock. Court records show that Blakely has prior felony convictions such as first-degree assault. Following this conviction, he is prohibited from owning or possessing a firearm.
