A man who shot at another driver on Interstate 5 in Tacoma, wounding an 11-year-old boy in the backseat following a dispute over merging, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison.
Jadan Davis-Gunn, 20, pleaded guilty Monday in Pierce County Superior Court to first-degree assault and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm in the Nov. 25, 2022 shooting. According to court records, the defendant was driving a Chevrolet Cruze when he and a vehicle carrying three people tried to merge onto the northbound lanes of the interstate from 56th Street.
Davis-Gunn reportedly tried to prevent the other driver from merging, which prosecutors wrote in charging papers led to “brief road rage.” He pulled up to the passenger’s side of the other vehicle, a Honda CRV, and used a handgun to fire at least four shots into the car. The 11-year-old was struck in the arm and abdomen. A surgeon at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital removed the bullet, which lodged in the boy’s liver.
The shooting had lasting effects on the boy’s family, his mother wrote in a letter submitted to the court in December 2022. In the days after, her son was terrified that someone would come shoot him again, she wrote, and he missed at least three weeks of school while he recovered.