Jury convicts man of murder in 2021 south Sacramento shooting that killed 20-year-old driver
A jury on Friday found a man guilty of first-degree murder for a 2021 shooting involving two vehicles in south Sacramento where a driver was hit by gunfire in the back of the head, prosecutors said.
Joshua Lee Atkinson, 21, was convicted of murder in the shooting death of 20-year-old Tyree Xavier Scott, along with an enhancement for using a gun, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office announced Monday in a news release.
About 6 p.m. Aug. 16, 2021, several drivers called 911 to report a drive-by shooting on Elsie Avenue near Stockton Boulevard. Prosecutors said seven gunshots were fired at Scott, and one of the bullets struck the back of his head.
A caller told the Sheriff’s Office that someone inside a vehicle appeared injured. Several other callers provided additional details, telling deputies that the gunfire seemed to have come from another nearby vehicle.
After the driver was struck by gunfire, the victim’s vehicle, which was heading west on Elsie, veered off the road and went through a hedge, according to the Sheriff’s Office. The vehicle came to a stop in a parking lot on the north side of the street.
Deputies arrived and found Scott wounded in the vehicle. The deputies provided first aid until medics arrived to take the victim to a hospital.
Scott was hospitalized after suffering a “catastrophic gunshot injury” in the shooting, Sacramento County sheriff’s officials said at the time. He died the following morning.
Prosecutors said deputies obtained security camera video that showed a dark-colored sedan as the suspect vehicle, and all witnesses at the scene told investigators that a suspect fired a gun from the passenger side of that sedan.
Security camera video also tracked the car up until the shooting, and the video showed Atkinson getting into a passenger seat in the car minutes before the shooting, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Across town, witnesses spotted “something suspicious” and called authorities to report they saw a group of men removing a license plates from a dark-colored sedan and covering the car with a sheet, prosecutors said.
The Sheriff’s Office, with help from the Sacramento Police Department, conducted surveillance on the sedan and detained people when they returned to the car; Atkinson was not with them.
Prosecutors said investigators found a 9 mm pistol in the car and determined it to be a ballistic match to the shell casings found at the shooting scene. Investigators arrested Atkinson the following day.
Since then, Atkinson has remained in custody at the Sacramento County Main Jail awaiting the conclusion of his homicide case.
Atkinson’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 31 in Sacramento Superior Court. Prosecutors said he faces a maximum sentence of 50 years to life in prison.
