Man charged in Tacoma homeless encampment shooting now accused in another murder

TACOMA – A man arrested and charged last year for shooting a man to death at a Tacoma homeless encampment is now accused of murdering a 35-year-old woman who also was without housing, according to police.

Nickolas Rojas, 22, was charged Wednesday in Pierce County Superior Court with first-degree murder for the killing of Syretta Brown, Tacoma Police Department announced Friday. Brown’s body was found Nov. 13, 2021, in a tent behind a Tacoma Fire Department station in the city’s Eastside neighborhood.

Brown’s mother, Debora Underwood, 59, said Friday that she learned a man was in custody for her daughter’s murder that morning. The news brought forward all kinds of emotions, Underwood said. She said her family, including her daughter’s two sons, are having a hard time during the holidays.

“This is something like a Christmas present,” Underwood said. “But it’s kind of like a bittersweet pill.”

It’s unclear how police determined that Rojas was a suspect in Brown’s killing. He was arrested in December last year for the homicide of 31-year-old Diego Escalante, and police said Rojas remains in custody. According to charging documents in that case, the suspect’s mother told police her son had a hatred for people who were homeless and made remarks stating they should be killed.

Brown’s body was found near the same homeless encampment where Escalante was shot three times Sept. 25, 2021, near East 38th Street and East McKinley Avenue, according to court records.

When Brown was found, police said she had been dead for weeks. The Pierce County medical examiner used dental work and fingerprints to identify her. Her death was ruled a homicide in February, but her remains had to be taken to the King County medical examiner for an anthropological consultation to determine a cause, which was found to be multiple sharp force injuries. Family of Brown previously told The News Tribune she suffered a broken jaw and a stab wound to her face.

Rojas was re-arraigned Wednesday on the new murder charge, according to court records. Superior Court Judge Karina Kirkendoll raised his bail from $1 million to $2 million.

Brown’s mother said she’s waiting to learn when Rojas’ next court date will be so she can lay eyes on the man. She said she’s looking forward to when she can express her opinion to him personally. Underwood said she wants to tell him that she and her family will never know whether Brown would have been able to recover from her struggles with drug use and be a mother to her children.

“There’s nothing like a mother’s love compared to a grandmother,” Underwood said. “I’m just a substitute. They never will have that motherly feeling of how a mother should feel, and they were robbed of that.”

Underwood lamented that her daughter’s body was too decomposed to be seen by the family. She said she still has questions about why it took weeks for Brown’s remains to be found when she was so close to a fire station.

Brown was cremated Feb. 26, and her ashes are in her mother’s Tacoma home.

Underwood grew up in Lakewood and said she is a longtime Tacoma resident. She lives in the area of South Hosmer Street, a hotbed of violent crime in the last few years. Underwood said she avoids going out at night, and she hears shootings from her bedroom now more than ever.

“People have no concern about people’s life no more,” Underwood said. “It’s just really crazy, and it’s rampant. And they shoot people like they’re playing a game. It’s no value of life, and it’s scary for the citizens of Tacoma.”

Underwood started a GoFundMe to raise money for her daughter’s children.