EASTPOINTE, Mich. – A Macomb County judge has scheduled a June 9, 2026, trial for a Detroit woman accused of opening fire in a Foot Locker parking lot, killing two men and critically wounding a third during a rapidly escalating fight on May 3, 2025.
Lakylia Sheila Taylor, 20, faces charges of second-degree homicide, assault with intent to murder, tampering with evidence, carrying a concealed weapon, and two counts of felony firearm. Prosecutors say she retrieved an unregistered handgun from her vehicle and fired multiple rounds after her brother was being beaten by three men in the lot on 8 Mile Road near Gratiot Avenue.
Her brother, Dejuan Taylor, 22, is charged with tampering with evidence and misdemeanor larceny for allegedly taking the firearm and magazines from one of the victims before fleeing the scene with his sister.
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According to the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office, the violence began shortly before 3 p.m. when the siblings and several others arrived at the store and approached a parked Jeep Compass. An argument between Dejuan Taylor and Tyjaune Pierre Morris-Turner, 22, of Detroit quickly turned physical.
Prosecutors say Morris-Turner exited the Jeep armed, and two other occupants — Steven Edward Gardin Jr., 23, and Juvan Maurice Newman, 24, both of Detroit — joined the fight, knocking Dejuan Taylor to the ground.
Lakylia Taylor told investigators she ran to her car, grabbed her pistol, and returned to the brawl. She admitted firing at Newman, who was on top of her brother, killing him. As Gardin and Morris-Turner attempted to back away, authorities say she continued shooting, fatally striking Gardin and leaving Morris-Turner with life-threatening injuries. Dejuan Taylor was also injured in the melee.
The siblings fled in Lakylia’s vehicle. She surrendered to police two days later on May 5.
“This was a senseless act of violence,” Macomb County Prosecutor Peter J. Lucido said in a statement. “Young lives are lost and ruined forever from this conduct. Self-defense of yourself and/or others is allowed, but street justice is never permissible.”
A pretrial hearing for Lakylia Taylor is set for January 21, 2026. Dejuan Taylor has separate court dates on his lesser charges.
Gardin and Newman were pronounced dead at the scene. Morris-Turner remains hospitalized in critical condition.