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Defendant Convicted of Third Degree Murder for Involvement in Retaliatory Shooting of 23-Year-Old Woman

PHILADELPHIA (June 6, 2022) — The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office today announced the conviction of a 33-year-old man who was involved in the fatal shooting of a young woman on the 5700 block of North Broad Street in the city’s West Oak Lane section on the evening of February 22, 2018. Timothy Barnes (10/26/1985) was found guilty by a jury of Third Degree Murder, Aggravated Assault, Recklessly Endangering Another Person and related charges.

Investigators believe that Barnes and an additional suspect targeted 23-year-old Tyisha Timmons, whose vehicle they wrongly identified as belonging to a member of a rival street group involved in a shooting just minutes before, in a retaliatory shooting that left Timmons dead and that endangered the lives of six other passengers, including three children. Investigators believe Barnes spotted Timmons’ conversion van shortly after the van drove through a shooting incident earlier that evening near 16th and Nedro Streets and began following her. Investigators also believe that Barnes was providing updates via cell phone to the suspect who would eventually carry out the actual shooting as they both trailed her vehicle.Timmons pulled into a Sunoco gas station lot on the 5800 block of N. Broad Street to calm her nerves after the shooting. Investigators then observed through later-obtained surveillance video the two suspects following her vehicle as it exited the Sunoco lot. The defendant, driving a gold-colored Chrysler Sebring, then pulled up next to the passenger’s side window as the other individual, driving a Ford Taurus, did the same on the driver’s side while Timmons was stopped at a traffic light. The driver of the Ford Taurus fired multiple shots into the vehicle, striking Timmons in the head and torso. The passengers in Timmons’ conversion van were treated for minor injuries related to the vehicle crossing a median and subsequently crashing into a building on Old York Road. Timmons was pronounced at the scene.

Barnes, who was wearing an orange Flyers hoodie, was later observed near 16th and Widener streets by two Philadelphia Police officers exiting the Chrysler shortly after the shooting. In addition to the police eyewitnesses and a sizable amount of surveillance footage obtained from dozens of locations that tracked Barnes’ movements, investigators utilized call detail records with cell site data to place Barnes in the approximate geographic area of the shooting.“This and other forthcoming verdicts send a clear message to would-be shooters out there: Despite the delays and challenges presented by the pandemic, if your case comes across our desk, you will be held accountable,” said DA Krasner. “We are very grateful to Assistant District Attorney Edgar Jaramillo and Philadelphia Police Detectives Joseph Centeno and Thorsten Lucke who painstakingly pursued this investigation to its conclusion.”

“Tyisha, my twin sister, was studying to become an engineer. She was cut down in the prime of her life,” said Myisha Timmons. “We are grateful for the hard work and dedication that the investigators put into bringing one of the men responsible for her killing to justice. We continue to pray that the other individual will be caught one day too.”A date for Barnes’ sentencing has not yet been scheduled.A photo of Tyisha Timmons provided by her family for use by the news media is below.

CONTACT:Dustin Slaughter, 215-686-8713, [email protected]

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The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office is the largest prosecutor’s office in Pennsylvania, and one of the largest in the nation. It serves the more than 1.5 million residents of the City and County of Philadelphia, employing 600 lawyers, detectives, and support staff. The District Attorney’s Office is responsible for the prosecution of approximately 40,000 criminal cases annually. Learn more about the DAO by visiting PhillyDA.org.

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