Latoya Louise Davis, a 37-year-old Black / African American woman, was shot during a double shooting on the night of August 25, 2022, in central Phoenix, Arizona, near 25th Street and Adams, close to 24th Street and Van Buren. Police were called around 9:30 p.m. after multiple gunshots were heard; arriving officers found Davis and another woman, later identified as Alicia Crosby, lying on the ground with gunshot wounds.
Both victims were rushed by Phoenix Fire to a local hospital for emergency treatment, but Davis did not survive her injuries, while Crosby’s wounds were described as non-life-threatening.
The Phoenix Police Department’s media advisory described the scene as chaotic, with officers receiving only limited information from witnesses, and detectives were called in to take over the investigation almost immediately. Local news coverage emphasized the shock to the neighborhood and the trauma to bystanders who saw the aftermath, with witnesses recalling hearing multiple rounds of gunfire and then seeing the two victims on the ground. Her family members later spoke publicly about their loss, describing Latoya as jovial, “the life of the party,” and deeply loved by relatives and friends; they organized vigils and called repeatedly for justice, stressing how the killing had shattered their family. Obituary and memorial pages show that a formal celebration of her life was held through Peace Chapel Funeral Home, with services at Elevate Christian Church in Phoenix, reflecting the strong support network that gathered around her family in the weeks after the shooting.
In the months that followed, investigators identified a single suspect. On January 18, 2023, Phoenix police publicly named 44-year-old Turrail Lightfoot as the person accused of shooting both Davis and Crosby, and a grand jury warrant was issued for his arrest on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated assault. Police stated that Lightfoot had fled Arizona after the shooting and was believed to be in Nebraska, prompting a wider manhunt and appeals to the public through outlets such as Silent Witness for tips about his whereabouts.
The search ended nearly a year later when the U.S. Marshals Service Southern Iowa Fugitive Task Force located and arrested Lightfoot on July 27, 2023, in the 4900 block of NE 14th Street in the Des Moines, Iowa, area. According to the Marshals’ press release, he had been wanted by Arizona authorities since the night of the shooting, when he allegedly shot and killed Davis and wounded the second victim near 25th Street and Adams. After his arrest, Lightfoot was booked into the Polk County Jail to await extradition back to Arizona to face the murder and aggravated-assault charges. As of the latest publicly available reports, authorities have treated the case as an ongoing homicide prosecution, and Davis’s family continues to invoke her memory in calls for accountability and justice for the life that was taken on that August night.
