Tashi Dhondup, age 21, male, was found mortally wounded inside a car in Seattle’s Roosevelt neighborhood on the night of July 23, 2021. Neighbors reported a burst of gunfire around 9:40 p.m. in the 1000 block of Northeast 63rd Street, and responding officers discovered him in a vehicle, the engine still running. He died from multiple gunshot wounds, and the initial scene yielded accounts of three men fleeing on foot.
Detectives quickly treated the case as a homicide and began gathering surveillance footage and physical evidence from the surrounding blocks. Early reports from local media and police described the encounter as having taken place while the victim sat in a parked car, with witnesses hearing several shots and seeing three figures run from a blue Nissan left at the curb. These details framed the first hours of the investigation and helped establish a timeline tied to a late-evening burst of 911 calls.
As investigators worked through video and vehicle data, prosecutors later outlined a robbery plot that culminated in the killing. According to charging papers summarized by local news, three men arranged to meet Dhondup under the pretense of purchasing oxycodone pills, then planned to rob him. One of the men sat with him in the car while another approached, opened the door, and fired multiple rounds before the trio fled, using a nearby gray Honda Civic Zipcar as a getaway.
Arrests followed in the months after the shooting. Prosecutors charged Porschauy T. Caldwell, then 21, with first-degree murder; he was later held on a $2 million bond. Justin Willis, 22 at the time, was also charged after an arrest in downtown Seattle. Investigators identified a third participant, Maliek Jasper, as part of the group named in the charging documents, and court filings described how the suspects secured the firearm beforehand and left with drugs taken from the victim’s car.
Public records and memorial listings confirm Dhondup’s age, date, and place of death. The case, originating in North Seattle’s Roosevelt area, was documented by the Seattle Police Department and covered by multiple local outlets as details of the suspects’ alleged plan became public through the charging documents.
