Teenager accused of fatal shooting in South Hill parking lot has been charged
A 16-year-old accused of killing another teenager last month in a South Hill parking lot may have wanted to steal the victim’s gun, charging papers allege.
Prosecutors charged Lajaeveon Maurice Simon with first- and second-degree murder Wednesday in connection to the fatal shooting of Franklin Kiraba Thananga, who was also 16. Court records said they’d been friends.
Simon pleaded not guilty at arraignment and Superior Court Judge Edmund Murphy set bail at $1 million.
He’s charged as an adult, because 16- and 17-year-olds are automatically sent to adult court in Washington state when they are charged with a serious violent offense.
Charging papers give this account of what happened:
Pierce County sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of a shooting about 10:20 p.m. July 28 in a parking lot near Meridian Avenue East and 168th Street East.
They found Thananga, whose nickname was “Duce,” with gunshot wounds to his head and back. He died at the scene.
Investigators spoke with witnesses in the area.
One said she and her friends ran toward the gunshot sounds. She saw the victim on the ground and said a car drove off. She also saw someone walking across the parking lot and ran after him, but she lost him when he turned a corner. Then she heard noises from a dumpster and called out for him, but thought better of pursuing the person further.
Another witness later said she was at a trailhead in the area when she heard someone talking to his mother on the phone. He said he’d been shot at and needed a ride. She initially picked Simon’s photo from a montage, but then decided the person she saw wasn’t pictured.
Investigators found 12 shell casings and five fired bullets. Several of the bullets were underneath the victim’s chest.
“The fact that these bullets were located underneath the victim’s body suggests that the victim was already lying face down on the ground when he was shot several times,” the probable cause statement said.
Investigators also found the victim’s cell phone along where they thought the suspect had been walking.
Thananga’s mother said he had gone out with friends that night, including Simon. When he didn’t return, she called the others. Simon said he hadn’t spent time with Thananga, and she thought he “seemed a little off during the conversation,” the probable cause statement said.
He and Thananga had a falling out last year, but she said she didn’t know what it was about.
Another friend said he didn’t spend time with Thananga that night, either.
That friend told investigators Simon asked if he’d take Simon and Thananga cruising. The friend said he didn’t because he had other plans.
The victim’s girlfriend tried to get more information about what happened. She allegedly told his mother that she found out Thananga had a gun that Simon wanted to steal, and that the shooting was over that gun.
Simon turned himself in earlier this month and was later booked into Remann Hall juvenile detention center.
“While waiting for detectives to arrive, the defendant made numerous statements indicating that he was going to be booked into jail that day,” the probable cause statement said. “He stated that he played a lot of sports that he wouldn’t be able to play anymore. He also made statements about friends dying due to gang and gun violence.”
He allegedly said he was involved in a shooting but didn’t want to make a statement without an attorney.
A family member with him allegedly said he told her the shooting was self-defense.
This story was originally published August 11, 2021 at 2:00 PM.
