In the late hours of a Friday night in Newburgh, New York, the life of Jermaine Cooper, a 40-year-old Black / African American male, was tragically cut short. On January 25, 2019, at approximately 10:20 p.m., the city's "Shot Spotter" system detected the sound of nine gunshots in the vicinity of Hasbrouck and Williams Streets. Responding officers discovered Cooper with a gunshot wound to his lower torso. He was swiftly transported to St.
Luke's Cornwall Hospital, but tragically succumbed to his injuries in the early morning hours of the following day.
Witnesses and street cameras quickly identified a white Toyota RAV4 as the vehicle from which the shots were fired. The SUV was seen fleeing the scene, heading towards Route 9W. A Town of Newburgh police officer spotted a vehicle matching the description traveling at high speed and attempted to initiate a traffic stop. The driver, however, refused to comply, sparking a high-speed chase that crossed over the Mid-Hudson Bridge and into the City of Poughkeepsie. The dramatic pursuit came to an end when the fleeing vehicle crashed into a tree on Smith Street.
Four individuals fled the crashed SUV on foot but were promptly apprehended by law enforcement. The suspects were identified as Donnell Johnson, 24, Steven Williams, 29, Kyreem Seiman, 18, and Tysheed McPhee, 23, all residents of the Poughkeepsie area. In the immediate aftermath, Johnson and Williams were charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon, while Seiman and McPhee faced charges of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
In the months that followed, the legal process unfolded. Steven Williams later pleaded guilty to manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon, admitting to being the one who fired the gun from the vehicle. He was subsequently sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison. Donnell Johnson, who was driving the getaway vehicle, pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment. Tysheed McPhee admitted to tampering with physical evidence by throwing the gun out of the car window during the chase.
