In the summer of 2017, the life of 18-year-old Chamari Webb was tragically cut short in Franklin, New Jersey. On the morning of August 9th, a dispute over money set in motion a fatal chain of events. Webb, a female, encountered a man with whom she had an ongoing disagreement. That man was 20-year-old Tamar Reaves, also from Franklin. Their meeting took place at approximately 7:50 a.m.
at a deli on Millstone Road.
Following the encounter, as Webb walked towards a relative's home on Battle Place, Reaves followed her. Moments later, he shot her in the back of the neck with a 9mm handgun. The first of multiple 9-1-1 calls reporting a gunshot victim came in at 7:54 a.m. Emergency services arrived to find Webb with a life-threatening wound and immediately began life-saving measures. She was rushed to a local trauma center but was pronounced dead at 8:29 a.m. An autopsy later confirmed that the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the neck, and the manner of death was ruled a homicide.
In the hours following the shooting, Reaves fled the scene, first to a friend's house in New Brunswick and then to his grandmother's home in Franklin. In a bizarre and chilling turn, he ordered a pizza and took to social media. He posted a photo of the pizza and, even more disturbingly, a video of himself singing the lyrics to a song that seemed to mirror the circumstances of the murder he had just committed. This, along with surveillance footage from the area of the shooting and assistance from the New Brunswick Police Department, led investigators to identify Reaves as the suspect. He was arrested just six hours after the shooting.
Tamar Reaves was initially charged with first-degree murder and two firearms offenses. After extensive pre-trial litigation, he pleaded guilty on April 2, 2019, to first-degree aggravated manslaughter and two counts of second-degree possession of a firearm. During his guilty plea, Reaves admitted that Webb owed him money and claimed he had only intended to scare her by pointing the gun at her. On May 16, 2019, a judge sentenced Reaves to 27 years in state prison. Under the terms of his plea agreement, he will be required to serve a minimum of 23 years before being eligible for parole.
