On a Saturday afternoon in Tacoma, Washington, on November 7, 2015, the life of 19-year-old Philip Ryan Jr. was tragically cut short. The young man was standing with a small group of people at a bus stop in the 1000 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Way when a car pulled over nearby. Several individuals exited the vehicle and walked across the street toward the group.
One of them, a 15-year-old, confronted Ryan directly.
Witnesses reported that the teen called out Ryan's name and accused him of a serious crime against a family member, an allegation that prosecutors later stated was unsupported by any evidence. Immediately after the accusation, the teenager pulled out a handgun and fired multiple shots at Ryan. As people scattered, Ryan attempted to flee but was struck again. He collapsed in the street from gunshot wounds to his upper back and was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.
The investigation into the shooting moved quickly. A witness provided a partial license plate number of the car the shooter had arrived in, which police traced to the family of Jasiah Inpeace Tolbert, who was 16 at the time and later identified as the driver. Within days, authorities had identified four individuals involved. The shooter, Domunick Marcus Smiley, who was 15 at the time of the incident, fled the state but was apprehended in California.
Ultimately, all four young men involved faced charges for their roles in Philip Ryan Jr.'s death. Domunick Marcus Smiley was charged as an adult and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, receiving a sentence of more than 21 years in prison. The driver, Jasiah Inpeace Tolbert, along with 19-year-old Arkeats Lintel Ross and 17-year-old Isiah L. Cavitt, were also arrested. They each pleaded guilty to first-degree rendering criminal assistance. Tolbert and Ross were sentenced to one year in prison, while Cavitt received a sentence of two years and two months.
