Tyrese Burks, a 20-year-old Black man, was described by his mother, Lakeeda Abdullah, as the "glue of our family." She said her son was a good-hearted, religious person and a "mama's boy" with whom she was very close. They spoke every day, and he never ended a call without saying, "I love you." His mother believed he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time on the day he was killed, trying to help a neighbor.
On the evening of June 26, 2023, a dispute at the George Place Apartments in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan, escalated into deadly violence. Around 6:30 p.m., a gunman opened fire on four people inside a car. Tyrese Burks and 16-year-old Dallas Williams were both killed in the shooting. Dallas’s two brothers, 19-year-old Travis and 14-year-old Cater Williams, were severely injured but survived.
In the chaos that followed, the vehicle carrying the victims crashed as they attempted to flee the scene and get to a hospital.
An investigation was launched immediately, and authorities quickly identified 19-year-old Tamar Louis Lorenzo Young as the person responsible for the shooting. Young had a prior criminal history that included weapons offenses. Three days after the attack, on June 29, 2023, the U.S. Marshals' Detroit Fugitive Apprehension Team located and arrested Young without incident.
Tamar Young was charged with multiple felonies, including open murder. The case concluded when Young pleaded no contest in June to two counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of Tyrese Burks and Dallas Williams. Following his plea, he was sentenced to serve 17 to 40 years in prison.
