In the predawn hours of Sunday, May 7, 2023, multiple gunshots were reported in a parking lot off Palmer Park Boulevard in Colorado Springs. When officers returned to the scene they found 20-year-old Ja’lyn Tyre Lagrue deceased. An adult female and another adult male also sustained non-life-threatening gunshot wounds and sought treatment at a hospital.

Police heard the shots at about 1:34 a.m., saw a dark-colored sedan fleeing and briefly pursued it before ending the chase. The El Paso County Coroner’s Office completed an autopsy and identified the victim as Ja’lyn Tyre Lagrue. The shooting was investigated as a homicide and listed as the city’s eighth for 2023.

Detectives say witness accounts helped focus the probe; an arrest warrant for 21-year-old Donnell Chess charging him with first-degree murder was obtained that same Sunday, and Chess was located and arrested without incident on Monday, May 8, 2023. Court records show Chess had several other open cases at the time and was held in the El Paso County Jail without bond.

If anyone witnessed the shooting or has information about the events in that Palmer Park Boulevard parking lot, please come forward.