Asha Davis, a mother and student nurse already working in a medical center, was killed around 8:30pm on January 1st in her home in Baton Rouge. A witness reported hearing about 15 shots in the apartment complex in which she lived. Thailand Brooks (29, the same age as his victim,) was arrested on February 21st, 2017, and charged with 2nd degree murder. It was reported as a domestic dispute. No weapon details. DP1.
Twenty-five year old Jamaal Taylor walked into a Taco Bell in Oak Park, Sacramento around 11:30am, suffering from gunshot wounds. He later died in hospital. It is reported that the incident would have happened in a vacant lot on Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard, and that Taylor walked two blocks to the store where he collapsed. There is no information known about the killer or the motive, and my searches have not brought up any additional movement on the case. His brother called Taylor “a laid-back dude. He had a good personality.” and in the same article in the Sacramento Bee, the Sacramento police have a reward for witnesses, including anonymous tips. DP2.
My eyebrows are telling me I’m still baffled about this one. Really. W.T.F?
Kareem Hagan, 22, and Marquis Marquez, 17, have the sorrowful honour of being killed in the same incident. They both died after a large street fight escalated to the use of firearms. Hagan, earlier found “not competent for prosecution because of intellectual disability and autism,” regarding a 2015 burglary, died at the scene, while Marquez died later from his injuries. The same publication, News 4 Jax, reported on Jan 1st, 2018 – one year later – that the crime is still unsolved. I would guess that the reported “at least two dozen” (see 1st article linked) men congregated in the street would result in at least two weapons being fired, so I’m nominating DP1 & 2, one for each.
Shanna Mason, was our third victim in Buffalo, NY, when she was gunned down outside a home there. She died instantly after being shot in the head and shoulder around 10:15am, by Nadiyah Z. Whitaker, who was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 19 years with 5 years post supervision, in December.
It was called “conduct charged by passion” by Tom Eoannou, Whitaker’s defense attorney, owing to a love triangle, with one of the two women getting a marriage license a day before the shooting. The crime was captured on security cameras, but the defense managed to have the charges changed from second-degree murder to first-degree manslaughter, which carries a lighter sentence, by being found by three mental health experts to have suffered extreme emotional distress on the morning of the shooting.
There was a lot of media attention (more articles about the case in my searches – in part because the killer was found and the court cases resolved,) on this case, and yet I found no mention of the actual weapon, aside from the fact that Whitaker possessed it unlawfully. DP 1
Heath “Petey” Dixey, 40, died at The Fort Hall Indian Reservation at around 2:20pm, by a family member, possibly in self defense. The suspect, reported to be male, was questioned by the police and released due to a “lack of probable cause”. Dixey was also reported as a good guy, heavy equipment operator and a father, and lived on a rural property. A seventeen-year-old apparent witness to the crime was reported missing after the event, but returned three weeks later. The only reported nod to the weapon was “gunshot wounds.” DP2