On August 5, a man pleaded guilty to shooting and killing a teen girl while she was riding her scooter in downtown Grand Rapids last year.
Josiah Pittman will shortly be sentenced on second-degree murder and felony firearms charges.
Second-degree murder can result in a sentence of up to life in prison with the chance of release. A felony firearm charge carries a required two-year term, which runs concurrently with the murder accusation.
Pittman was 18 years old in May 2024 when he opened fire on a crowd outside Studio Park in downtown Grand Rapids.
According to the Kent County Prosecutor, the shooting was the result of a quarrel between two people, but he declined to elaborate on what that argument was.
La’Kyijah Williams, 15, was shot in the back of the head and killed. Investigators stated that she was not the intended target.
“The idea that you’re going to take a handgun and shooting an individual, you know, 10, 15, 20, however far away, extremely cowardly act number one for the act, but number two, you have no idea where those rounds are going to go,” said Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom in 2024.
According to her obituary, Williams had a bright temperament and enjoyed playing basketball and football. She died as a freshman.
“The 15-year-old girl, who was literally just riding her scooter in downtown Grand Rapids, was gunned down, and the family was devastated,” Winstrom said. “Absolutely heartbreaking, absolutely avoidable.”
Detectives labored tirelessly for months to elicit testimony from witnesses. The Kent County Prosecutor indicated that they used the investigative subpoena process to collect witness testimony and surveillance footage to assist in identifying the perpetrator.
“We are not going to be a city that tolerates one of our children getting murdered, and not following through,” Winstrom said last year.
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