On a Sunday evening in Wichita, Kansas, the life of 19-year-old Nakari Moore, a Black male, was tragically cut short. On November 5, 2017, just before 6 p.m., Moore had just completed a simple errand, paying his cellphone bill at a MetroPCS store in the 2800 block of South Hydraulic. He then got into his car with another person and began to drive away.
It was at this moment that several gunshots were fired into his vehicle.
Moore was struck in the upper body by the gunfire and was rushed to a local hospital in critical condition. Despite medical efforts, he succumbed to a gunshot wound to the head the following day. The area around the shooting was cordoned off for hours as Wichita police began their investigation, noting that Moore's car had been hit multiple times. The passenger who was in the car with Moore at the time of the shooting fled the scene after the shots were fired.
The investigation quickly identified a 16-year-old, Jeremiah Tate, as the suspect. For a time, police searched for the teenager. He was eventually located and arrested on November 28, 2017, at an apartment complex in the 1700 block of South Hillside. Investigators reported that Moore and Tate did not know each other, and the motive for the shooting remained unclear.
Though he was a juvenile at the time of the shooting, prosecutors moved to charge Jeremiah Tate as an adult. He was initially charged with first-degree murder. In a later plea agreement, Tate pleaded guilty to an amended charge of second-degree murder. In November 2022, a Sedgwick County judge sentenced the now 21-year-old Tate to more than 13 years in prison for the murder of Nakari Moore. He was also ordered to pay restitution.
