Bill Foulk None proven in court Ray Fjetland The Ash Street shootout was a gunfight on September 23, 1989, in the Hilltop neighborhood of Tacoma, Washington, United States, between off-duty United States Army Rangers and people associated with one Ranger's across-the-street neighbors, who were suspected of drug dealing and gang activity.
Starting at 9:20 PM, 12 or so Rangers[# 1] and 15 to 20 people from across the street exchanged gunfire with handguns and long guns for five to thirty minutes[# 3] until police arrived.
In 1987, Bill Foulk,[b] a staff sergeant in the 2nd Ranger Battalion based at Fort Lewis, moved to Ash Street in Hilltop, Tacoma, Washington, buying the worst home on the block for $10,000 (equivalent to $24,580 in 2023) so that he could restore it.
[4] Hilltop saw an uptick in gang violence and open drug use in 1989;[8][7] when Foulk returned home from a deployment to Panama that summer, he and neighbors began to advocate for a greater police presence.
[8][11] On September 21, 1989, an article in the local The News Tribune described the group as "on the verge of vigilante action" due to police inaction;[12] the story had the effect of slowing drug dealing in the area, which Foulk says angered gang members.
[8][6] After The News Tribune's article ran, he organized a barbecue on September 23 as a show of unity[8] and to discuss plans to reduce crime.
[8] During the barbecue, people at the house across the street threw rocks and rotten pears at the upstairs video camera.
[8] Some residents of the neighborhood, including occupants of the house across the street, presented a different narrative, in which the Rangers had taunted them and laughed at them.
[11][20] The officer tasked with disarming the Rangers, feeling that they had done nothing wrong, struck a deal in which they would hand over only their less valuable guns.
[1] Russ Carmack, The News Tribune's photographer at the scene, later said that he had heard a police commander lecture the Rangers for failing to hit anyone.
[2] In 2022, he said to Fox 13 Seattle that the Rangers shot multiple people, who fled the scene rather than await emergency medical services.
[11][27] Hand-to-hand fighting among supporters of both sets of belligerents continued for 27 minutes until the police, who had been busy answering other calls, arrived.
He maintained to 48 Hours while awaiting trial that the Rangers had fired first, unprovoked, a claim that correspondent Bernard Goldberg found implausible.
The News Tribune, in a retrospective piece published 20 years after the event, framed it as a catalyst for policing improvements and an eventual decrease in crime on Ash Street.
Foulk's actions spurred the creation of more neighborhood block groups and more community reporting of crime, contributing to the condemnation of dozens of drug houses.