Tacoma teenager charged with fatally shooting a driver at an intersection in Kent
A 17-year-old Tacoma teen has been charged with murder after he shot a driver, who crashed into light poles after making a turn at a Kent intersection Nov. 21.
Prince J. Mayamba’s charges include first-degree murder “with premeditated intent” and unlawful possession of a firearm in the second-degree, prosecutors wrote Feb. 11. His arraignment will be Feb. 24 in King County Superior Court.
Mayamba was 16 when he shot Khamal J. Blissitt, a 21-year-old man from SeaTac, court records say. Mayamba faces charges in adult court because first-degree murder is considered a “serious violent offense” under Washington state law.
Kent Police Department officers responded at about 1:06 a.m. on Nov. 21 to a call of a vehicle collision and downed utility poles near the intersection of Veterans Drive and Military Road South, according to the department’s Facebook post that day. The post said that the driver was the only one hurt and that there were no passengers in his car.
A probable cause affidavit filed in King County Superior Court said the police officers found an unresponsive man identified as Blissitt slumped over in the driver’s seat of a black 2010 Lexus RX SUV. He appeared injured and had at least one gunshot wound. The officers also observed bullet holes in the right front passenger window and severe damage to the front of the car. Officers and first responders attempted life-saving measures, but Blissitt was pronounced dead, the affidavit said.
After talking with a tow truck driver who witnessed the event and reviewing footage from his dash camera, officers determined that the black Lexus was traveling west on Veterans Drive and stopped at a red light to turn north onto Military Road South, according to the affidavit. While the car was stopped, the suspect later identified as Mayamba ran up to the car and fired six gunshots at the right front passenger-side window.
Blissett’s car then turned onto Military Road South but veered off the road and hit two utility poles, one of which almost struck the passing tow truck. Mayamba was seen fleeing east on Veterans Drive in the direction he came from, the affidavit said.
On Nov. 25, the King County Medical Examiner reported Khamal J. Blissitt’s cause of death as multiple gunshot wounds and his manner of death a homicide.
At age 16, Mayamba wasn’t legally allowed to possess a firearm at the time of the shooting and was facing a pending charge in another case for unlawful possession of a firearm, according to the affidavit.
Kent detectives opened an investigation and reviewed surveillance footage from apartment buildings near the intersection where the shooting occurred. One video showed Mayamba and Blissitt having a brief conversation within 15 minutes of the shooting outside an apartment complex just east of the intersection. Mayamba then jogged toward the intersection on foot, and the black Lexus SUV exited the parking lot and turned toward the intersection a short time later.
Detectives recognized Mayamba’s face from his past contacts with law enforcement. They also matched his light gray sweatpants and sweatshirt, seen in videos of the shooting, to a figure seen walking outside the apartment complex in the hours leading up to the shooting, according to the affidavit.
Surveillance footage showed Mayamba and three other people leaving the apartment complex parking lot in a blue 2010 Kia Forte shortly after 1:05 a.m., the affidavit said. Detectives later located and spoke to a woman who said she drove the Kia away from the apartment complex around that time with three of her friends.
One of her friends left for about 15 minutes while they were smoking marijuana outside the apartment complex. When he returned, he asked her for a ride to a park in Federal Way and they drove there in the Kia, she told the detectives. She said she wasn’t aware a shooting had occurred, according to the affidavit.
Police arrested Mayamba after learning he had been admitted into Tacoma General Hospital for a gunshot wound to his leg Feb. 8. Mayamba was booked into the King County Juvenile Detention Center after receiving treatment, prosecutors wrote.
