SEATTLE — The two suspects believed responsible for instigating a downtown Seattle gunfight last month that killed one woman and injured seven others are expected to appear for an extradition hearing Tuesday before a judge in Las Vegas, where they were arrested over the weekend, according to the district attorney for Clark County, Nevada.
Marquise Tolbert and William Toliver, both 24, were arrested Saturday by U.S. Marshals and members of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department as they left a Las Vegas hotel, Deputy U.S. Marshal Beatrice Pharr wrote in a news release. Jail records show the men were booked as fugitives from another state on a complaint or warrant.
Both men were wanted on warrants issued by the state Department of Corrections for escaping community custody. Tolbert, who had been at large since August, is accused of violating community supervision on a robbery charge. A warrant was issued for Toliver the day after the shooting for violating his community supervision on a firearms charge.
King County prosecutors have not yet charged them in connection with the Jan. 22 shootout at Third Avenue and Pine Street, which happened at the height of rush hour and sent bystanders running for cover. Seattle police recovered more than 20 shell casings from three different-caliber weapons, Police Chief Carmen Best later said.
Killed in the crossfire was 50-year-old Tanya Jackson, who was a beloved longtime resident of Plymouth House, which provides supportive housing to residents who were previously homeless. Another woman who lives at Plymouth House was injured in the shooting and remains in serious condition in the intensive care unit at Harborview Medical Center, according to the hospital. Five men and a 9-year-old boy were also injured but have since been released from the hospital.
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson confirmed Monday that Tolbert and Toliver were arrested on warrants issued by Washington state. The purpose of Tuesday’s hearing, he said, “is to learn if they’re voluntarily waiving extradition.”
Most suspects or criminal defendants who are arrested in another state waive extradition and are returned to the jurisdiction where their alleged crimes were committed, Wolfson explained. If extradition is not waived, a governor’s warrant is signed and the person is then extradited — a process that can take 30 to 60 days, he said.
The news release from the U.S. Marshals doesn’t indicate how Tolbert and Toliver traveled from Seattle to Las Vegas, but they apparently met up with an associate and had been in the Las Vegas area since Jan. 26, four days after the shootout. Members of the U.S. Marshals’ Violent Offender Task Force worked alongside Seattle police and DOC officers to track and locate Tolbert and Toliver, the release says.
On Saturday morning, Tolbert and Toliver were spotted leaving the Rio All-Suite Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, located a few blocks west of the Las Vegas Strip, and were taken into custody without incident, according to the news release.
“I am proud to say our task force worked diligently, chasing down every lead, while working through the night to ensure the arrest of these two violent fugitives. Justice will be served and these arrests will help to bring closure to the city of Seattle, as well as begin the healing process for all of the victims and their families,” Jacob Green, the acting U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Washington, was quoted as saying in the news release.
Jamel Jackson, 21, is also a suspected shooter, though prosecutors have said he was not the aggressor. Jackson was wounded in the exchange of gunfire and was arrested at Harborview after detectives recognized him in surveillance footage from the shooting scene. He was charged with second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm and remains jailed in lieu of $250,000 bail, King County jail and court records show.
According to court records and DOC, Tolbert was imprisoned from April to July after he was convicted of second-degree robbery for ripping a $1,500 gold necklace from the neck of a woman in Bellevue in 2018. As part of a plea agreement to resolve three other felony cases against him, including a drive-by shooting, he pleaded guilty to the robbery charge and was sentenced to a year-plus-a-day in prison and given credit for time he had already served in jail, the records show. He was also sentenced to 18 months of community supervision.
On Aug. 19, less than seven weeks after his release from prison, a DOC warrant was issued for Tolbert’s arrest for failure to comply with the conditions of his community supervision, a department spokeswoman said the day after the shootings. He had been at large since then.
In April, Toliver was sentenced to three months in jail after pleading guilty to second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm, according to court records.
A DOC warrant was issued Jan. 23 for Toliver’s arrest, also for failure to comply with conditions of community supervision, the DOC spokeswoman said at the time.
