Witnesses in Latah County teen shooting say they were shocked, felt trapped

MOSCOW – Two witnesses present at the mid-July camping trip during which Tim J. Reeves, 18, of Pullman, was fatally shot described what transpired that morning during a preliminary hearing Thursday in Latah County Magistrate Court.

Keagan C. Tennant, 17, of Pullman, who is accused of shooting and killing Reeves, and Matthew McKetta, 18, of Moscow, who allegedly assisted in hiding the body, were both bound over to Latah County 2nd District Court on all charges following seven hours of witness testimony.

According to court documents, witnesses say Tennant, son of the Pullman police commander, was pointing a .30-06 bolt-action rifle at Reeves – who in turn was holding a silver Smith and Wesson .38-caliber revolver and aiming it at Tennant – when Tennant allegedly fired and killed Reeves the morning of July 17 during a camping trip east of Troy.

Corp. Ryan Weaver with the Latah County Sheriff’s Office testified Tennant told him in an interview that he didn’t know the rifle was loaded.

“(Tennant) said they were shooting the rifle Monday morning and he thought it was unloaded, but it must have been loaded,” Weaver said Thursday. “I asked, ‘How do you know?’ He said, ‘Well, because the first shot that I fired struck Tim.’ ”

Zacaria Worl, one of the five people on the camping trip, said at first Tennant and Reeves were holding the guns within inches of each other’s faces and dry firing.

“I’m loading the next bowl and out of the corner of my eye I see Tim make a movement, looking like he was putting a bullet in (the pistol),” Worl told the court Thursday. “Keagan pulls up the rifle and said, ‘How lucky are you feeling?’ And that’s when (Tim) pulls out the pistol and says, ‘How lucky are you feeling?’ ”

Worl said at that point Reeves started taunting Tennant with racial slurs and telling him to jump, and the rifle went off. He said Reeves, who was sitting beside him, fell backward and the pistol landed on his chest after the shot.

Worl said he became hysterical and didn’t know what to do. He said he began to cuss at Tennant, jumped up and began to move away from him when he heard another shot and saw the brush in front of him moving, which he believes was caused by a bullet fired at him by Tennant.

“Between the first shot and the second shot (Tennant) said, ‘No witnesses; everyone needs to die,’ ” Worl testified.

McKetta told police he was not at the campsite, but recalls hearing the rifle fire twice.

Worl testified Tennant curled up on the ground and began sobbing and rocking back and forth after firing at him. That’s when he walked over and grabbed the pistol off Reeves’ chest.

“I didn’t know what to do,” Worl said. “He did just shoot at me. He did just kill someone. What could happen next?”

The public defender representing Tennant, Deborah McCormick, questioned why it took Worl two days to report the crime. She asked whether his violation of his probation by being in Latah County and having to serve 30 days in jail had anything to do with it. He admitted that delayed him in coming forward to police, but said he was in shock, too.

“I don’t know how to explain it,” Worl said. “I was so heartbroken by what happened; there wasn’t any other emotion right then than I just lost a really close friend.”

Throughout his testimony, Worl said he was present when McKetta and Tennant rolled Reeves’ body up in a tarp and dumped it in the woods near the campsite – though he was adamant that he did not assist.

Worl’s girlfriend, Erin Liguori, also was along on the trip. She testified that she was awakened by a gunshot and then saw Tennant rocking back and forth and crying.

Liguori said she felt trapped. The defense asked why she didn’t tell McKetta’s father when he came to check on them at the campsite.

“Every time I looked behind me, I felt like there was going to be a gun barrel in my face or I would get shot,” Liguori said.

Weaver said during interviews with Tennant and McKetta they both said they considered telling police. McKetta said he “freaked out” and considered telling his father, but said Tennant told him it would be easier to hide the body.

Worl and Liguori eventually contacted police. McKetta and Tennant were taken into custody two days later about 10 miles south of the Canadian border in Curlew, Washington, where Tennant previously participated in a Job Corps program. Their capture followed a manhunt that lasted nearly 30 hours.

Weaver told the court McKetta told him it was Tennant’s plan to escape to Canada, make their way to Alaska and then Russia. He said the guns were stolen from McKetta’s father.

“This entire situation is a huge tragedy and I know a lot of people are suffering,” said Judge John C. Judge. “I’m sure that there are many people in this courtroom that wish we could roll this back to the day before it happened.”

Tennant faces seven felony charges: involuntary manslaughter; attempted murder; principal to robbery; principal failure to notify coroner or law enforcement of death; conspiracy to commit failure to notify coroner or law enforcement of death; principal to destruction, alteration or concealment of evidence; and conspiracy to commit destruction, alteration or concealment of evidence.

The maximum penalty on Tennant’s charges is 60 years to life in prison and as much as $230,000 in fines.

McKetta faces five felony charges: principal to robbery; principal failure to notify coroner or law enforcement of death; conspiracy to commit failure to notify coroner or law enforcement of death; principal to destruction, alteration or concealment of evidence; and conspiracy to commit destruction, alteration or concealment of evidence.

The maximum penalty on McKetta’s charges is 25 years to life in prison and as much as $130,000 in fines.

An arraignment for both is scheduled for Nov. 6.