Alexander M. Borgen, a 16-year-old boy from Lacey, Washington, was walking through a familiar crosswalk with his 17-year-old brother, Deven, in the early hours of Friday, November 14, 2025, when the quiet street suddenly turned into a crime scene. Just before 2 a.m., multiple 911 calls reported gunfire near the intersection of College Street Southeast and 24th Avenue Southeast, a busy corridor that passes by Mountain View Elementary School.
First responders from Lacey Fire District 3 arrived to find the two teenagers lying in the street with gunshot wounds; despite emergency lifesaving efforts, both brothers were pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators quickly concluded they were the victims of a drive-by shooting, their final steps frozen in the middle of an ordinary neighborhood crossing that residents had always assumed was safe.
In the days that followed, the intersection where Alexander and Deven fell transformed into a place of mourning. Under cold November rain, flowers, candles, handwritten notes, and photos accumulated along the roadside, turning the corner of 24th Avenue Southeast and College Street into an impromptu memorial. Neighbors spoke of hearing gunfire before dawn but said they had never seen violence like this so close to home, describing a neighborhood that had seemed peaceful until that morning. Friends of Alexander remembered late-night phone calls and everyday teenage plans that ended abruptly when he said he was heading outside with his brother. Family members later described the boys as good students and kind kids: Alexander was said to have “turned his life around,” earning strong grades and trying to do everything right, while Deven was remembered by his grandfather as a helpful, respectful young man who would lend a hand to anyone.
While the community built its memorial, detectives worked to piece together what had happened in the moments before the shots were fired. Lacey police asked residents and businesses along College Street to review surveillance cameras for anything captured between 1 and 2 a.m., hoping a passing headlight or grainy silhouette might reveal the vehicle involved in the drive-by. The case quickly drew wider attention: a national nonprofit, the Youth Peace & Justice Foundation, offered a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to an arrest, framing the brothers' deaths as part of a broader effort to confront gun violence against students. The foundation also pledged to support the Borgen family financially and to create a lasting memorial for the two teens, including plans to plant trees in their honor.
Behind the scenes, investigators were slowly tightening the circle around the people they believed were responsible. Using surveillance footage from the area, police traced a suspect vehicle back to a home not far from the shooting, where one of the eventual suspects, 20-year-old Trequanne Trenelle Wilson-Mason of Lacey, already had a history with law enforcement. Cell phone records placed him near the intersection at the time of the killings, and a witness told police that Wilson-Mason had admitted being the shooter. Court records revealed that he was already facing charges in a February 2025 domestic violence case, in which he allegedly pointed a gun at an ex-girlfriend and threatened to kill her; prosecutors had requested that he be held on a higher bail, but he was instead released on $25,000 and remained free when Alexander and Deven were killed that November night.
Within days, the investigative pressure led to two dramatic arrests. Wilson-Mason was tracked from Lacey across the state to a hotel in Wenatchee, where he was taken into custody with the help of local law enforcement and returned to Thurston County to face murder charges connected to the brothers' deaths. A second man, 20-year-old Jaden Johns, was later identified as an alleged accomplice. According to court documents, Johns is accused of supplying the murder weapon—an AR-15-style rifle with a 60-round magazine—and driving the vehicle during the drive-by. When deputies tried to stop him in Pierce County, he reportedly fled at speeds reaching more than 100 miles per hour, leading to a high-speed chase that ended only after a patrol car performed a maneuver that sent his vehicle rolling; Johns was ejected, suffering minor injuries, and an AR-15 was found alongside other firearms scattered from the wreck.
The narrative that emerged in charging documents was even more chilling. Prosecutors say Wilson-Mason fired more than 20 rounds at the brothers in what appears to have been an act of misdirected retaliation, believing he was striking back at someone he suspected of shooting at his home the year before. In his interview with police, he allegedly admitted that he intended to target Alexander because he thought the teen was connected to that earlier attack, only to learn afterward that the boys he killed had nothing to do with it. Court records note that he became emotional when he realized he had “shot the wrong people,” a detail that underscored for the Borgen family and the community just how senseless the violence was.
Both Wilson-Mason and Johns are now being held without bail at the Thurston County Jail, each facing two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of drive-by shooting, while Wilson-Mason also remains detained on a no-bail warrant tied to his earlier domestic violence case. They are accused, not yet convicted, and will return to court to enter pleas and eventually face trial. As the legal process moves forward, the corner where Alexander fell with his brother still bears the marks of that November night—flowers that keep being replaced, candles that are lit again and again, and handwritten promises from friends and strangers that the two boys will not be forgotten, even as their family waits for a measure of justice that can never restore what was lost.
