Man accused of shooting teen over prank also charged in 2025 shooting at bar
A University Place man facing charges for shooting a teenager in March was indicted Wednesday for a separate shooting at the Brass Lantern tavern in May 2025.
Prosecutors charged 31-year-old Majeed Lamir Guerry with four counts of assault with firearm enhancements for allegedly firing three rounds from a handgun inside the Brass Lantern on May 30, 2025.
Guerry appeared in court Wednesday for his arraignment. He pled not guilty to the charges.
Prosecutors recommended a bail of $500,000, citing Guerry’s lengthy rap sheet. His criminal history includes felony convictions from 2018 and 2019, as well as domestic violence misdemeanors from 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, prosecutors said.
Judge Joseph Evans imposed $700,000 in new bail for the latest charges. It was imposed consecutively with Guerry’s previous bail of $300,000 for the shooting in March, adding up to $1 million total.
Details of 2025 incident
At around 10:26 p.m. on May 30, 2025, police responded to a shooting at the Brass Lantern bar on Tacoma’s Eastside.
Security camera footage backed witness reports of a suspect fighting with and screaming at a woman, according to the charging papers. After an employee and patron intervened, the suspect began to walk away toward the door, documents said.
The suspect then turned around and fired three rounds from a handgun toward the woman and patron. At least seven people were near the area of the shots, documents stated.
The shooting suspect was described as “a black male in his twenties, thin, with black hair and a mustache” who left in a four-door gray Kia, case documents said. The suspect also had an “S” shaped tattoo near his left eye, according to witness reports.
The alleged female victim was uncooperative with police and left in a white Porsche, documents said.
Officers traced back the Kia the suspect fled in, and found it was registered to the female victim.
The next day, officers impounded the vehicle and found fingerprints inside that matched with Guerry’s, documents said.
Police interviewed the woman, who said she had just met the suspect and located her vehicle through GPS tracking. When asked why she would allow someone she just met to drive her vehicle, and if she could provide more details about how she found her car, she was uncooperative and evaded questions, case documents said.
In a later interview with a detective, Guerry said he and the victim had been dating for about a year.
After obtaining the Apple ID of the female victim, officers found videos of Guerry wearing clothes matching the description seen in surveillance footage.
A jury trial for the case is currently set for Wednesday, June 10.
Details of 2026 incident
Guerry was already in prison awaiting trial for a separate shooting that occurred on Feb. 28.
At around 9 p.m., officers responded to a reported shooting on the 3200 block of South Tyler Street.
Four teenagers were at the scene, including one boy who had been shot in the chest, according to charging papers.
The boy was taken to a local hospital for treatment. He didn’t have life-threatening injuries, but it appeared he came close to a “fatal outcome,” documents said.
The remaining three teenagers told officers they were driving and throwing water balloons at other cars for entertainment that night.
They threw a water balloon at a silver sedan. The driver, later identified as Guerry, drove after the teens to a gravel lot on Mullen Street, blocking them from leaving.
Documents state Guerry confronted the teens and robbed them at gunpoint. He pointed a gun at the victim who was sitting in the front passenger seat. The victim later told detectives Guerry struck him in the face with the gun before he was shot.
Guerry demanded to know who threw the balloon and focused his aggression on the victim, documents state.
Using surveillance footage, authorities identified the silver sedan Guerry was driving as a 2025-2026 Kia K5 model. Detectives tracked police reports and found that Guerry’s girlfriend owned a vehicle matching the description.
Phone records from the girlfriend allegedly placed her in the area of the shooting around the same time it happened. Surveillance footage allegedly shows Guerry and his girlfriend in the Kia arriving at the Emerald Queen Casino less than an hour after the incident.
The couple was arrested March 20 at an apartment in the South Hill area.
The girlfriend told detectives she was with Guerry on the day of the shooting, but her memory was hazy due to being intoxicated, documents show.
She recalled the sunroof and driver’s window were open, causing the couple to get wet when the water balloon hit them. She said Guerry drove after the car and got out after they stopped.
The girlfriend said she was not paying attention to Guerry when he went over as the music was turned up, and she was on her phone, documents say.
She said she did not hear a gunshot and nothing seemed different about him when he came back. Documents say she also confirmed they went to the casino after.
Guerry told detectives he did not recall details of the night and had no knowledge of the car involving teenagers and water balloons. He asked for an attorney after a detective confronted him about the incidents.
A jury trial for this case is tentatively set for Wednesday, May 6.
