A Bellevue man who shot and killed a fellow apartment tenant in 2023 was sentenced Friday to two years and nine months in prison, closing out a case that began as a murder charge and ended with a guilty plea to a lesser crime. Christopher Jadwick Lynch admitted to causing 41-year-old Dennis Parker’s death through criminal negligence after pleading guilty in August to second-degree manslaughter with a deadly weapon.
Pierce County Superior Court Judge Shelly K. Moss handed down the sentence, according to a report on the case. Lynch had originally been charged with second-degree murder and entered a not-guilty plea at arraignment on grounds of self-defense, as the Tacoma News Tribune reported shortly after the October 2023 shooting. Prosecutors later amended the charge to second-degree manslaughter, citing evidentiary problems with the case.
A Shooting Outside the Stairwell
The shooting happened Oct. 23, 2023, outside Lakeside Landing Apartments in Tacoma, where Parker lived. Police responded to the complex shortly after 1 p.m., detaining Lynch while officers aided Parker and interviewed witnesses. Lynch returned to his girlfriend’s apartment, then called 911 to report that he had shot Parker.
Court documents described Lynch approaching Parker on a sidewalk after leaving a stairwell. Lynch first stopped about 30 feet from Parker, then moved closer and stopped 5 to 8 feet away before drawing his handgun and firing once. Tacoma police detectives said at the time that the shooting appeared unprovoked, and the same report noted that detectives did not see Parker move toward Lynch in surveillance footage reviewed after the incident.
Competing Accounts of What Happened
Lynch’s defense attorney, Bryan Hershman, offered a different version of events. He said Parker carried a backpack with a knife tucked into a webbed water-bottle compartment, and that Parker moved toward that knife while Lynch stared at him, prompting Lynch to fire. Hershman wrote in a defense filing that Lynch’s sole motivation was protecting his girlfriend, and said the couple had been leaving the complex to deliver food when they encountered Parker.
Lynch told detectives he had traveled from Bellevue because his girlfriend said Parker was banging on her doors and walls. Parker, for his part, had been cited by police just the day before the shooting for causing a disturbance at the complex involving a knife. Deputy Prosecutor Bryce Nelson wrote in a court filing that Parker’s conduct before the shooting created significant potential proof problems for prosecutors at trial.
A Guilty Plea with a Caveat
In his guilty-plea statement, Lynch reportedly said he was only pleading guilty to take advantage of a plea agreement, even as he had previously asserted he acted in self-defense. Sentencing documents said Lynch had no prior criminal history. Under Washington law, second-degree manslaughter is classified as a class B felony.
Parker’s 16-year-old son said he had never met his father and felt deep sadness knowing he would never get the chance.
Second Deadly Shooting at the Complex That Year
The October 2023 shooting marked the second homicide reported at Lakeside Landing Apartments that year, according to KOMO News. Months earlier, on March 29, 2023, a 16-year-old Foss High School student was shot several times on the apartment grounds. Three suspects, including two 17-year-olds, were later arrested and each charged with first-degree murder in that case.
