Man accused of fatal shooting at Tacoma motel pleads guilty, but not to pulling trigger

Shea Johnson
·2 min read

A 24-year-old man initially accused of fatally shooting a resident of a notorious Tacoma motel has been sentenced for being an accomplice to the crime but not for pulling the trigger.

Jeremiah Pauulu Tusi, who had been charged with first-degree murder, recently pleaded guilty in Pierce County Superior Court to first-degree manslaughter with a deadly weapon enhancement, court records show.

He was sentenced on March 2 to more than eight years in prison.

Tusi was one of two men seen leaving 40-year-old Joshua Ferrell’s room at the Econo Lodge on South Hosmer Street after the shooting in February 2022, authorities said.

Ferrell was discovered by a woman as he came out of his room, holding his neck and profusely bleeding. She drove Ferrell to a nearby hospital where he died.

His death was one of five reported at a hotel or motel last year on South Hosmer Street.

Tacoma police received several calls from people who identified Tusi as the shooter and claimed he bragged about the crime, including robbing Ferrell, according to the charging document in the case. Witness statements and surveillance video also pointed police to Tusi.

In his guilty plea, Tusi said that he saw an accomplice — who he did not name — shoot Ferrell in the upper body. Tusi admitted to showing his accomplice where Ferrell lived, knowing that he planned on robbing Ferrell, and said that the accomplice stole personal property, including narcotics.

“No one besides myself, my accomplice, and Mr. Ferrell was in the motel room at the time of the shooting,” Tusi wrote in a statement to the court. “I fled Mr. Ferrell’s motel room with my accomplice in a vehicle. I did not do anything to save Mr. Ferrell’s life.”

Tusi was apprehended following a vehicle pursuit that began after he was found near the scene of the shooting and ended in Lakewood. Tusi crashed into multiple vehicles during the chase, and he was shot by police and taken to the hospital with serious injuries, authorities said.