A Deadly Encounter at the Pharmacy
A South Tacoma druggist is fighting for his life after a masked intruder opened fire during a robbery attempt.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Seiver Larsen, one of the proprietors of Trommald's pharmacy at 1555 South Tacoma Avenue, was shot in the abdomen and fatally wounded about 8:30 o'clock last night by a robber. He now lies at St. Joseph's Hospital, his life slowly ebbing away, and a man giving the name of Burke is locked up at the police station charged with the crime. Larsen and a friend, Richard Brown, had been scuffling in a friendly way in the back room when a man entered through the front, passed behind the counter, and commanded 'Hands up!' Larsen, thinking it a joke, grappled with the intruder. The robber pressed a revolver against Larsen's abdomen and fired. The bullet passed through his body and lodged in the wall. Despite his wounds, Larsen managed to call the police. Chief Fackler and officers later arrested John Burke at the Commercial House, 1522 1/2 South C Street. When apprehended, Burke was wearing a hat stolen from an Italian candy peddler he had attempted to rob shortly after the pharmacy shooting.
“The crime was one of the most cold-blooded and deliberate assaults that ever occurred in Tacoma.”
This incident captures the vulnerability of local business owners in 1904, a recurring theme in the history of Tacoma's commerce. The specific intersection and the proximity of the pharmacy to South Tacoma's growing business district underscore the personal cost of the city's early, often violent, economic shifts.
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