Tyniece Haley, an 18-year-old Black female described by her mother as “loved and good spirited,” was just a week away from her nineteenth birthday when her life was cut short. A 2022 graduate of Southwood High School in Shreveport, Louisiana, Tyniece was remembered at a funeral service at New Elizabeth Baptist Church on March 18, 2023.
On the evening of March 5, 2023, a group of people gathered for a pre-arranged fight in the parking lot of the Hot Wheels Skating Palace on the 5100
block of Bert Kouns Industrial Loop. The business had already closed for the night. An altercation broke out, and during the fight, Tyniece was shot. When Shreveport police officers arrived around 8 p.m., they found her deceased at the scene from a gunshot wound to the back of her head. Her death was the 16th homicide in Shreveport and Caddo Parish that year.
Investigators with the Shreveport Police Department quickly identified two suspects. On March 8, 2023, police arrested 19-year-old Tristen Thomas in connection with the shooting. Later that same day, they arrested a second suspect, 19-year-old Natoya Dixon. Authorities stated that Tyniece had been involved in a brief physical fight with the suspects before she was shot and killed.
Both Tristen Thomas and Natoya Dixon were booked into the Shreveport City Jail and charged with one count of second-degree murder. On June 24, 2023, a Caddo Parish Grand Jury returned an indictment against Natoya Dixon, formally charging her with second-degree murder. As of June 2023, the case was proceeding through the court system.
