Connor Mendoza still carries bullet fragments in his body nearly two years after a gunman shot him twice in the stomach outside Dorky's Arcade in downtown Tacoma. Today, the 31-year-old spends his days walking Pacific Avenue in a full Superman costume, complete with a belt and matching underwear, waving at drivers and posing for photos with strangers who stop him on the sidewalk. He calls the persona Hilltop Superman 253, and he says it has become the unlikely engine of his recovery.
The shooting happened in October 2024, when a gunman pulled a weapon on one of Mendoza's coworkers at the arcade, according to KIRO 7 News. Mendoza wrestled the gunman to the ground before he was shot twice in the stomach, and the attack landed him in the hospital for five days. “I'm glad I intervened, because it could have been ten times worse,” Mendoza said, adding that the confrontation could have injured more people or caused deaths. Emergency crews had responded to the area of South 9th Street and Pacific Avenue, near the arcade, shortly before 1 a.m. that night, per FOX 13 Seattle.
A Long Road Back From Physical and Emotional Wounds
Mendoza cannot work because of his injuries, and he expects a full recovery to take years. PTSD from the shooting kept him away from other people for a long stretch of his recovery, a withdrawal he says the Superman persona has helped him break out of. He describes himself as a social butterfly at heart, and portraying Superman full-time has helped him come out of his shell again.
Mendoza had lived and worked in downtown Tacoma since 2016 and is a father of two young children, according to The News Tribune. A GoFundMe fundraiser started by community members has raised more than $3,000 toward a $10,000 goal to help him cover living and medical expenses while he remains unable to work.
Spreading Small Moments of Joy on Pacific Avenue
Now, when people walk by, they stop for pictures with Mendoza rather than passing him on the street unnoticed. He says helping just one person smile can spread far beyond that single interaction, and making other people happy has become his focus during recovery. During one KIRO 7 interview, a family even staged a fake purse-snatching so Mendoza, in costume, could play the hero and rescue the bag.
Suspect Faces Charges Across Two States
Prosecutors identified Dre'shaughn Henderson as the suspect in the shooting, and he was arrested afterward but released, according to the same KIRO 7 report. He now faces charges in three separate Pierce County court cases tied to the Tacoma shooting, while he remains jailed in Oregon on a promoting-prostitution charge and 30 counts of contempt of court out of Clackamas County. Henderson allegedly contacted an alleged victim repeatedly despite a restraining order, and Clackamas County prosecutors have set his contempt case for trial in October. His overall legal resolution in Washington remains unfinished.
Henderson's history in Oregon dates back further than the Tacoma case. He was previously arrested in February 2020 during an interagency human trafficking operation in Clackamas County on charges of promoting prostitution and unlawful possession of a firearm, according to the Oregon City Police Department.
Downtown Businesses Still Feel the Aftershocks
The shooting rattled Dorky's Arcade's neighbors along Pacific Avenue, a stretch that has hosted the retro arcade bar since co-owners Les Voros-Bond and Caroline Dennewith opened it in September 2010 with more than 100 vintage pinball and video games, according to the Tacoma Daily Index. Several neighboring business owners reported shortening their operating hours after the shooting, citing safety concerns for staff working late at night, per KIRO 7's original reporting on the incident.
The case landed amid a broader debate over crime in Tacoma. FBI crime statistics analyzed last September placed Tacoma among the Washington cities with the highest per-capita violent crime rates, making public safety a central issue in the city's mayoral race, according to KING 5 News. More recently, statewide data released by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs showed violent crime dropped 13.8% and homicides fell 21.6% across Washington between 2024 and 2025, FOX 13 Seattle reported. The City of Tacoma also maintains a public Police Crime Dashboard, updated every business day, that lets residents filter reported incidents by council district and police sector.
For Mendoza, the statistics and court dates run alongside a slower, personal timeline. He still expects years of recovery ahead, but for now, the cape and the waves from passing drivers are part of getting through each day on the same street where he was shot.
