On the night of December 16, 2017, police officers in Kansas City, Missouri, were dispatched to the 9300 block of Cable Road in the southern part of the city following reports of a person lying in the roadway. Upon arrival, they discovered 36-year-old Joegina L. Davis suffering from critical injuries. A passing motorist who had spotted her in the street told investigators that he stopped to render aid and asked her who had inflicted the injuries.
Before losing consciousness, Davis was able to identify her attacker, telling the witness that 'Tyrone' had done it. She further explained that she had gotten out of a vehicle, at which point he shot her and then ran her over with the car. Davis was rushed to a nearby hospital but succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced dead.
Detectives quickly identified the suspect as Howard Tyrone Neely, the victim’s estranged husband, who was known to go by his middle name. Investigation into the couple’s history revealed a pattern of domestic turmoil; family members reported that Neely had abused Davis in the past, and court records showed that he had called her phone more than 1,000 times between mid-November and early December of that year. Crime scene technicians recovered a shell casing near the victim's body which proved to be a pivotal piece of evidence. Through the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, authorities matched the casing to one recovered from a separate shooting scene in Kansas City, Kansas, from September 2017, an incident in which witnesses had also identified Neely as the gunman.
Following the investigation, the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office charged Howard Tyrone Neely with second-degree murder and armed criminal action in connection with his wife's death. Prosecutors requested a high cash bond, citing the violent nature of the crime and the ballistic link to the previous shooting. The charges detailed the brutal nature of the attack, corroborating the victim's dying declaration that she had been both shot and struck by a vehicle. Neely was subsequently taken into custody to face the allegations in court.
