Dominique Kimani “Kiki” Oglesby, a 23-year-old Black/African American female, was home in Philadelphia in March 2018 with a future that seemed close enough to touch. She was a senior at Penn State Harrisburg, studying communications, and was expected to graduate that spring. Family and friends described her as quiet, respectful, loving, and deeply connected to her family, especially her younger brother, whom she treated with almost motherly care.
On Sunday, March 18, 2018, Dominique
had reportedly attended church earlier in the day before stopping at the Galaxy West Bar & Grill, also known in some reports as Galaxy West Lounge or Jay’s Hookah Lounge, on the 5200 block of Market Street in West Philadelphia. She had gone there to get food. What should have been an ordinary stop turned into a confrontation. Police said Dominique became involved in a fight with another woman inside the establishment. The dispute grew into a larger melee, with people on both sides becoming involved, and the conflict spilled outside more than once.
As the situation escalated, Dominique called her family for help. Her father, Fareed Oglesby, and her grandfather, Stephen Bass, came to the scene because they lived nearby and were trying to protect her. According to accounts from police and family members, after the argument moved outside again, someone connected to the woman Dominique had been fighting pulled a gun. Gunfire broke out near 52nd and Market Streets. Dominique was shot in the back. Her father was shot in the foot, and her grandfather was shot in the arm. Both men survived their injuries, but Dominique was rushed to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and pronounced dead that evening.
The killing devastated her family, her campus, and the community around her. Penn State officials identified her as a full-time senior majoring in communications and offered condolences to her family and friends. She was only weeks away from graduation, and later remembrances emphasized how close she had been to completing her degree. Her death was remembered not just as another act of gun violence, but as the loss of a young woman on the edge of adulthood, preparing to begin the next chapter of her life.
In the days after the shooting, police said they were searching for Julius Scott in connection with Dominique’s death. One April 2018 report stated that Scott was wanted for the murder of Dominique Oglesby and that police believed he may have been driving a green 1997 Mercury Grand Marquis. On May 16, 2018, U.S. Marshals arrested Scott on the 5700 block of Pine Street in Philadelphia. He was 26 at the time.
Reports about the charges described Scott as arrested in connection with the fatal shooting, and some coverage referred to him as the suspected or alleged gunman. However, other reports clarified that police said Scott was not charged with the actual shooting death itself, but rather with firearms offenses connected to the incident, including possessing a firearm as a former convict. One report noted that he had previously pleaded guilty in 2012 to robbery, conspiracy, and weapons possession and had been sentenced to four to ten years in prison. Available online reports located for this synopsis did not provide a confirmed trial outcome, conviction for homicide, or final disposition of the charges connected to Dominique’s death.
