Deputies: Man ran over, killed by his date after he caught her sleeping with tattoo artist

GIG HARBOR -- Detectives are trying to piece together exactly how a first date ended with the death of a man Sunday when he was run over by his date, who was also hospitalized in critical condition after a truck she was driving launched 15-feet down a Key Peninsula embankment.

According to Pierce County Sheriff's Detective Ed Troyer, 53-year-old Leon Shaw and his unnamed 47-year-old date drank quite a lot at a house party in Saturday night in the 600 block of Cornwall Road.

It was there that Shaw's date allegedly asked a tattoo artist at the party to tattoo her chest. The man agreed, and tattooed the woman.

But somewhere along the line, Troyer said, the date and the tattoo artist "became intimate" while she was getting the tattoo, prompting an argument between her and Shaw. The woman punched Shaw, Troyer said, who allegedly slapped her.

The woman -- wearing only a T-shirt at the time, Troyer said -- fled the house party and jumped into Shaw's truck. Shaw ran outside after her and squealing truck tires were heard, witnesses told police.

Friends ran outside the party moments later to find Shaw on the ground, and the woman crashed in the truck about a quarter-mile away from the house party. She was injured and trapped inside the vehicle.

Officers called to the scene pronounced Shaw dead. The woman -- who has not been named because she has not been formally charged with a crime -- was transported to the hospital with critical injuries.

Police are investigating the incident.

They said they were not immediately sure if Shaw's date tried to run him over on purpose, or if it was an accident.