Alexis Marcille Barnett, a 19-year-old female from Washington, Pennsylvania, died on Wednesday, May 4, 2016, after a nighttime shooting in the city of Washington. She was walking with a group of people on Bruce Street at about 9:40 p.m. when gunfire broke out. Police later said she was not the intended target; she was caught in the line of fire during what authorities described as an attack meant for someone else.
The shooting happened when a small silver car pulled up near the group and
someone inside or associated with the vehicle began firing. Barnett was struck and critically wounded, and her friend, Jasmine Young, was also shot in the lower left leg. Young survived after being treated, but Barnett was taken to Washington Hospital and was pronounced dead later that night. In the days after her death, family, friends, and community members gathered at a vigil, remembering her as a young woman whose life had been taken suddenly while she was simply walking with friends.
At first, police questioned people they described as persons of interest, including Jamaal Greene and Shawn Sessoms. Early reports said those men were not immediately charged in Barnett's death, though Greene was taken into custody on a parole violation and Sessoms faced unrelated drug-related charges. As the investigation continued, authorities focused on two Washington men: Tavian Hooper and Jamaal Greene, both 18 at the time of the arrests. By June 2016, both were jailed and facing homicide, conspiracy, and related charges in connection with Barnett's killing.
Investigators alleged that the intended target was Edwin “Cheeno” Rivera, a 26-year-old man with whom Greene and Hooper reportedly had “bad blood.” According to police accounts later described in court coverage, Greene was driving and had Hooper with him before the shooting. The pair allegedly spotted Rivera, made gun-like gestures and “boom, boom” remarks, then turned around and pursued him. Police said Greene eventually stopped and let Hooper out, and Hooper was accused of firing toward Rivera. Barnett, walking nearby with the group, was hit instead. Young was wounded in the same burst of violence.
A juvenile witness who had reportedly been in the vehicle told police that Greene instructed Hooper to pull his hood up tightly before the shooting. Police also said Greene admitted during questioning that he dropped Hooper off that night. Defense attorneys challenged the strength of the evidence during the case, and Hooper's attorney argued that someone else could have committed the homicide. Even so, both Hooper and Greene were ordered to stand trial after a preliminary hearing in July 2016. Prosecutors later announced they would not seek the death penalty against them.
Greene's case resolved first. In May 2017, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit homicide in connection with Barnett's death. In August 2017, Washington County Judge Gary Gilman sentenced Greene to 8½ to 20 years in state prison. During the sentencing, Barnett's family spoke about the pain of losing her. Her father, Larry Thompson, described the lasting trauma of seeing his daughter dead and criticized Greene for protecting Hooper. Her mother, Anissa Thompson, through a victim advocate, questioned why anyone would shoot into a crowd of people and described the grief left behind by the killing.
Hooper remained accused as the shooter after Greene's sentencing. In January 2018, Hooper pleaded guilty to third-degree homicide, conspiracy to commit homicide, and aggravated assault. He was sentenced to 9 to 20 years in state prison for the 2016 shooting that killed Barnett and injured Young. The guilty pleas and sentences brought legal closure to the case, but the circumstances remained stark: Barnett was not the person the gunmen were after, and her death came from a retaliatory confrontation that turned a walk with friends into a fatal shooting.
