Soldier fatally stabbed in Lakewood identified

SEATTLE — A Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier who was fatally stabbed during an altercation in Lakewood, Wash., on Saturday has been identified. The Pierce County Medical Examiner’s office says an autopsy is planned Monday for 20-year-old Tevin Geike. The Army said Sunday that Spc. Geike, of Summerville, S.C., was an aviation operations specialist and a member of the 7th Infantry Division. He entered the Army in October 2010 and arrived at JBLM in April 2011. The News Tribune says he graduated from high school in North Charleston, S.C., in 2010. Investigators were examining whether the attack was a racially motivated hate crime. Lakewood police say Geike was walking with two friends when a car drove by and someone inside shouted a racial comment toward the white soldiers. Authorities say the soldiers shouted something back, and a group of five black men from the car stopped and surrounded the soldiers. Police said the men in the car began to leave but one of the suspects appeared to bump into the victim as he walked past. His friends discovered he had been stabbed.