Lamar Hood, 31, a Black man, was killed in the predawn hours of July 26, 2020, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, after gunfire erupted near East Austin Street and North Cliff Avenue. Police were dispatched at about 4:37 a.m. on reports of shots fired, and callers quickly followed with word that someone had been hit. When officers arrived, they found Hood wounded by gunshots; he was rushed to a local hospital, where he later died.
In the first frantic hours, investigators treated the case as
a targeted homicide rather than a random act, focusing on people connected to Hood. That same day, police publicly identified two people of interest—Skylar Summer Jorgensen and Rashaun Romaine Dennis Guest—warning the public not to approach them and asking for tips. By the end of July 26, police said they had located the pair at separate places in Sioux Falls and arrested them without incident. Guest, 24, was jailed on a second-degree murder charge, and Jorgensen, 22, was jailed on an accessory to second-degree murder charge, with police noting that additional charges could still emerge as the investigation continued.
As the case moved through court, prosecutors filed more serious counts against Guest, including first-degree murder, second-degree murder, and first-degree manslaughter, setting up the possibility of a mandatory life sentence if a jury convicted him of the top charge. Instead of taking his chances at trial, Guest reached a deal and pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter, a charge that can carry a sentence up to life in prison. Reports at the time also said Jorgensen remained charged as an accessory in connection with Hood's death, and her case was still headed toward a jury trial, with scheduling discussed publicly in early 2022 coverage.
By the spring of 2022, Guest's plea had turned into a lengthy prison term: a sentencing report summarized that a judge ordered 75 years in prison with 20 years suspended, crediting him for time already served, and noted that parole eligibility would come only after he served a substantial portion of the sentence. The arc of the case—from a shooting before sunrise, to arrests within hours, to a negotiated guilty plea years later—closed one courtroom chapter, even as public reporting indicated a separate track continued for the alleged accessory.
