In the late evening of May 4, 2016, seventeen-year-old Kaylynn Voegele was fatally shot in a condominium complex in Burien, Washington. A junior at Mt. Rainier High School, Voegele was with her 17-year-old boyfriend, Gianni Cunningham, at the time of the incident. Residents of the complex reported hearing a loud fight in a hallway followed by multiple gunshots at approximately 10:30 p.m.
When authorities arrived, they discovered Voegele with a gunshot wound to her head; she was pronounced dead at the scene.
Initially, Cunningham claimed that Voegele was the victim of a drive-by shooting. He told investigators that a man in a black BMW had fired at them. However, his story quickly unraveled as detectives found his account inconsistent with evidence and other witness statements. A neighbor told police that he had witnessed the entire event through his peephole. He saw Cunningham playing with a handgun and heard Voegele repeatedly ask him to put it away. At one point, she reportedly told him, "I'm not afraid of you." The witness then saw Cunningham point the gun at Voegele's face and fire.
Following the shooting, Cunningham allegedly tried to stage the scene to support his drive-by story by firing two more shots into a hallway door. Investigators found two bullet holes in the door, but the evidence suggested they were fired from inside the building. Cunningham was arrested and subsequently charged as an adult with second-degree murder and unlawful possession of a firearm. At the time of the shooting, he was on probation for a prior firearms offense. His attorney later claimed the shooting was an accident.
