Suspected gunman arrested in Tacoma, charged with murder in fatal Hilltop shooting

TACOMA – Tacoma police have arrested a 22-year-old man who is suspected of shooting and killing a man earlier this year after an argument outside an apartment building in the city’s Hilltop neighborhood.

The suspect, Artavious Zyshue Magee, was charged in June in Pierce County Superior Court with two counts of second-degree murder and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm in the April killing of 20-year-old Lehman Charrod Tucker. A bench warrant was issued for his arrest, and he was taken into custody Tuesday.

According to charging documents, a woman described as the man’s girlfriend, Audrianna Young, also faces a second-degree murder charge. She was arrested the month after the homicide in Everett and then released from jail after the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office declined to file charges and requested further investigation. Jail records do not show that she is in custody. A spokesperson for the Tacoma Police Department was not immediately available to comment.

Magee is to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon.

Officers responded at about 1 p.m. the day of the shooting to the 700 block of South Yakima Avenue, one block south of Wright Park, for reports of a person shot. Tucker was taken by a private vehicle to Tacoma General Hospital, where he was declared dead. According to the declaration for determination of probable cause, hospital staff told police he was shot in the torso five times.

Tucker’s mother, LaJonna Johnson, said she burst into tears when the lead detective on the case gave her the news about the arrest Tuesday. Johnson said she’s put all of her energy into keeping her son’s name alive and keeping Tucker’s classmates and peers updated on the case in the months since the shooting, including starting a “Justice for Charrod” Facebook page. She said the arrest brings her some kind of closure.

“We didn’t get to say goodbye to Charrod, and that is something that’s going to stick to me forever,” Johnson said. “So, it has been very important to me that the person that took his life be held accountable for it. So this is hopefully the first step in that process.”

Tucker, who went by his middle name, was a University Place resident and a 2020 graduate of Spanaway Lake High School, where he wrestled and ran track. A friend said he was funny and had a “firecracker” personality.

The homicide was the 11th killing in Tacoma this year. Since then, the homicide count for the city has grown to 18, though one of those killings occurred on Puyallup tribal trust land. At this time last year, Tacoma had recorded 30.