On November 2, 2017, the life of 39-year-old Raymond Myles Jr., a Black male from Seattle, Washington, was tragically cut short. In the early hours of that Thursday, at approximately 12:30 a.m., Myles, along with 31-year-old Shon-Tiea Marie Ann Brister, was shot and killed in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle. A third individual was also wounded in the attack, which took place near the intersection of 5th Avenue and Battery Street.
The King County Medical Examiner later confirmed that both Myles and Brister died from multiple gunshot wounds.
The events leading to the fatal shooting began with a "disturbance" between two groups of people, according to witnesses who spoke with Seattle police. The surviving victim of the shooting later provided investigators with a harrowing account of the night's events. He explained that Myles had received a distressing phone call from Brister, who stated that two men had assaulted her, striking her in the head with a brick. Myles agreed to give her and the other man a ride. As the three of them approached Myles's car, two men appeared and opened fire on the group.
Following an investigation, authorities identified two suspects in the double homicide: 35-year-old Jeremy J. Simmons and 27-year-old Nyagah Baker-Williams. The motive for the shooting was believed to be "payback" for a theft allegedly committed by Brister's boyfriend. Investigators found shell casings of two different calibers at the scene of the crime, suggesting that both suspects had fired their weapons.
In December 2017, Jeremy J. Simmons was apprehended by U.S. Marshals near the Mexican border in San Diego, California. He was subsequently charged with two counts of first-degree murder, one count of first-degree assault, and illegal firearm possession. In March of the following year, Nyagah Baker-Williams was also charged with two counts of first-degree murder for his alleged role in the deaths of Myles and Brister. At the time the charges were filed, Baker-Williams remained at large.
