Ex-Boyfriend Kills Himself After Shooting Woman’s Friend

A man broke into his ex-girlfriend’s apartment and shot her current boyfriend five times, then drove away and committed suicide, Pierce County sheriff’s deputies said.

The gunman was identified as Thomas O’Neal Jr., 49, of Tacoma.

Sheriff’s spokesman Curt Benson gave this account:

O’Neal, armed with a .357 revolver, went to the woman’s University Place apartment Friday morning. When the woman wouldn’t let him in, he broke through her bedroom window.

O’Neal fired six rounds, with five hitting the woman’s boyfriend. He then placed the gun to the woman’s head and pulled the trigger, but it didn’t fire because it was out of bullets.

The gunman left the apartment, drove about a mile to a restaurant parking lot, reloaded the weapon and fatally shot himself in the head, Benson said.

The woman’s boyfriend, a Kennewick 23-year-old, was in stable condition at Madigan Army Medical Center with gunshot wounds to his stomach, back and leg, Benson said.