Brandon Michael Tukes was 23 when he was fatally shot on November 5, 2022, in Glendale, Arizona. He had moved to Arizona from Des Moines, Iowa, with hopes of becoming a police officer. A former Lincoln High School football standout, he was remembered as outgoing and a natural-born leader; he left behind his mother and a son born in March 2022.

The shooting occurred at a business complex that housed a tattoo parlor and a barber shop near 51st Avenue and Camelback Road. Security footage reportedly shows Tukes in a heated conversation that escalated and ended with him being shot. A 16-year-old male was arrested and charged with second-degree murder; the teenager said he shot in defense of another person involved in the argument with Tukes.

Tukes’s death was followed by further violence affecting his family, including the fatal police shooting of his 16-year-old half-brother in Des Moines during a disturbance, and a later deadly shooting at an educational program for at-risk youth in Des Moines that was reported to be connected to these events.

If anyone witnessed the incident near 51st Avenue and Camelback Road or has information about the confrontation, please share what is known.