Wilmington man convicted of downtown gang shooting

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A Wilmington man has been sentenced to prison for a downtown shooting.

Tyshaun Windham, 19, pled guilty to one count of Assault with a Deadly Weapon with the Intent to Kill Inflicting Serious Injury and Felony Larceny.

Windham was sentenced to more than five years (70-96 months) in the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction for the shooting offense, followed by 36 months of supervised probation on the larceny offense.

He was also ordered to pay $2,217.96 of restitution to the larceny victim.

On October 15, 2023, the co-defendant in this case, Tristian Allen, attempted to shoot a rival gang member on a crowded sidewalk near the intersection of Princess and Front Streets. The gun Allen was using, however, jammed and no bullets were fired.

The crowd in that area immediately dispersed, but a few minutes later, rival gang members from the 720 Gangster Disciples and the United Blood Nation engaged in a related shootout a block away near the intersection of Princess and Second Streets, in which 86 rounds were fired by the two parties.

A few minutes after that, near the intersection of Princess and Water Streets, the original victim who Allen tried to shoot previously was shot at 12 times by Tyshaun Windham using a 9mm handgun.

One of these shots struck the victim in the back and causes serious, but not life-threatening, injuries.

The larceny occurred almost three weeks prior to this shooting on September 30, 2023. On that day Windham stole the vehicle of a female that he was visiting and subsequently caused over $2,000 of damage to the car. Prior to these incidents, the defendant had no criminal record.

“This October incident was one of the largest shootings, as far as number of bullets fired, that we have ever seen in downtown Wilmington,” Assistant District Attorney Brad Matthews said. “As a result, it was absolutely imperative to law enforcement and our office that the individual responsible for inflicting the lone gunshot wound of that evening be held accountable.”