Skylar Ashton Marquel Linson

Skylar Ashton Marquel Linson was a 17-year-old Black male and a senior at Lewisville High School in Texas. A classmate remembered him as genuine, sweet, outgoing, and funny, someone who "cared about everyone but himself." He was also an aspiring musician who made rap videos.

On the afternoon of September 20, 2023, just after classes had ended for the day, Skylar was in the parking lot of a Raising Cane’s restaurant near his school on West Main Street. Around 4:10 p.m., he got out of his car and began walking toward the restaurant. A different car pulled up, a person got out, and fired a gun multiple times, striking Skylar. The shooter then got back in the car and drove away. Skylar was rushed to Medical City Lewisville, but he died from multiple gunshot wounds.

As the shooter fled the scene, a witness followed the vehicle while on the phone with 911, relaying its location to authorities. After a brief chase, police officers apprehended the driver in Carrollton, about eight miles away. The suspect, who surrendered to police, was identified as Siang Leng Thang, a 16-year-old from Flower Mound who was not a student at Lewisville High.

Prosecutors later revealed that the shooting was a targeted, retaliatory attack. Thang’s best friend, Van Sui Uk, had been murdered in May 2023. Thang sought revenge on Skylar after Skylar mentioned Uk’s death in a rap video. According to the district attorney’s office, the two teenagers argued on Instagram for nearly three months before Thang lured Skylar to the Raising Cane’s, ostensibly for a fistfight. Skylar arrived unarmed, at which point Thang ambushed him, shooting him seven times.

Siang Leng Thang was certified to stand trial as an adult. In October 2025, a Denton County jury convicted him of murder. He was sentenced to life in prison.