Black/African American male Xeryus Tate, age 17, was out in the small hours of Sunday, July 31, 2016, when shots cracked across Anchorage's east side. Just after 2 a.m., officers were dispatched to the area of East 4th Avenue and Newell Street, where they found the 17-year-old on the ground near his car. A witness told police the car had rolled to a stop; the teenage driver opened the door, stepped out, and collapsed while two passengers stayed in the vehicle and two others ran from the scene.
From the beginning, detectives said the killing did not appear random.
Within days, investigators named a suspect: 18-year-old Deandrew Lee Jennings Walker-Webster II. A warrant was issued for his arrest on a manslaughter charge, and police asked the public for help finding him. According to the department's release, Walker-Webster had been in the back seat and “recklessly” caused the death of the 17-year-old driver. The arrest warrant and charging decision marked a swift turn in a case that had rattled a city already reeling from a spate of shootings.
On August 5, 2016, the search ended when Deandrew Webster II turned himself in. Authorities confirmed he was in custody on the Anchorage manslaughter warrant tied to the death of the 17-year-old. The police department noted his initial bail—$50,000 cash or corporate surety with a third-party custodian—while the Associated Press account recounted the same sequence of events that began with the car stopping and the teenage driver collapsing into the street. With the suspect in custody, the narrative of that early-morning killing came into sharper focus, even as the shock of a life cut short lingered over the corner where it happened.
In the days after the shooting, local broadcasts and public safety bulletins echoed the plea for information, reflecting how quickly the city's attention had fixed on the case. By the close of that week, the arc had shifted from a frantic canvass for a named suspect to a booked arrest, leaving prosecutors and courts to carry the story forward and a community to remember a 17-year-old whose final moments unfolded under the streetlights.
