In the late hours of a summer evening in Portland, Maine, on June 26, 2018, a male named Jack Wilson, aged 45, found himself in a heated argument on Oxford Street. The confrontation took a tragic turn when Wilson was shot near the intersection with Elm Street. A police officer who was in the vicinity of the nearby homeless shelter heard the gunshot and quickly responded to find Wilson with a gunshot wound to the stomach.
He was immediately transported to a local hospital for emergency medical care.
Despite the efforts of medical staff, Jack Wilson succumbed to his injuries a week later, on July 3, 2018. His death was officially ruled a homicide following an autopsy that confirmed he died from the trauma of the gunshot wound. The investigation into his death led police to a suspect, 19-year-old Tyrese Collins. Collins was already incarcerated at the Cumberland County Jail on a probation violation when he was arrested and charged with the murder of Jack Wilson.
Initially facing a murder charge, to which he pleaded not guilty in September 2018, Tyrese Collins's legal journey took a different course. In September 2019, he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter. The court proceedings revealed that Collins claimed he was intervening in an argument between Wilson and another man. In January 2020, a judge sentenced Collins to 10 years in prison, with all but six and a half years suspended. He was also sentenced to four years of probation. The fatal shooting of Jack Wilson was one of several violent incidents that occurred in the Bayside neighborhood that summer, prompting an increased police presence in the area.
