BILLINGS - Officers found a bloody scene on Nov. 1 when they entered a Billings home shortly after a reported shooting. The front of the house had been sprayed with bullets fired from two handguns.
The officers first encountered a dead dog in the living room, and later learned it was a family pet named Karma, according to recently filed court documents.
They next found 31-year-old Kenneth Morrison on the floor of a bedroom with at least one gunshot wound. Underneath Morrison's lifeless body they found his baby boy, Tatee'k Morrison, still enveloped in his father's arms. The baby later died at the hospital of "compression asphyxiation."
The shooting sent a shock wave through Billings. It was among several similar fatal shootings within a short time that raised awareness and concern about a growing and dangerous gang problem in the community.
RELATED: Billings police chief vows to take hard line against rising gang violence
On Monday, the two people accused of committing what one prosecutor described in court as an "outrageous and horrendous crime" were each charged with two counts of murder.
Myron Scott Goes Ahead, 19, and Jane Nicole Knowshisgun, 20, appeared for arraignment in Yellowstone County District Court by video from the county jail. Both have been held in jail on unrelated charges since shortly after the Nov. 1 double murder that happened shortly after 10 a.m. at 724 N. 17th St.
Goes Ahead appeared first and was described by Deputy County Attorney Ann-Marie McKittrick as a dangerous convicted felon. She said Goes Ahead has a previous felony drug charge and a juvenile criminal record. She asked for his bond to be set at $1 million.
Juli Pierce, an attorney appearing with Goes Ahead, first told the judge that her client's last name was spelled with two words, and that he was currently a state Department of Corrections inmate so he "won't be going anywhere."
Judge Mary Jane Knisely entered not guilty pleas on behalf of Goes Ahead to two counts of deliberate homicide and one additional felony county of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.
Knowshisgun appeared next and was represented by a public defender.
McKittrick, the prosecutor, described Knowshisgun as an "extreme flight risk," telling the judge the woman has pending felony charges that include child criminal endangerment and bail jumping. She has failed to appear for numerous court hearings, the prosecutor said, and also asked the judge to set her bond at $1 million.
McKittrick also explained that prosecutors were amending the language in the charging documents to delete the words "by accountability" to reflect the correct statute under which the case would proceed. Pleas of not guilty were entered on her behalf to two counts of deliberate homicide.
Knisely agreed to the bond amount requested for both Goes Ahead and Knowshisgun.
New Details
New details of the shooting were released in charging documents, including an in-depth description of how video cameras at Scheels caught Goes Ahead, Knowshisgun and two others
arrive in a stolen pickup truck and both buy and steal handgun ammunition from the store. Prosecutors said testing later connected the ammunition to shell casing and other evidence collected at the crime scene and at the houses where Goes Ahead and Knowshisgun were arrested a short time after the shooting.
The shooting happened the next day. As officers arrived at the residence on North 17th Street where Morrison and his son would soon be found dead, a witness approached the first officer and offered video surveillance of the shooting.
The video later provided investigators with an account of the entire shooting, although it did not capture images of the people's faces. The same stolen pickup captured outside Scheels the day before is seen arriving and stopping outside the residence, court records state. The driver, who can be seen in red clothing, steps out and a second person can be seen in the truck's passenger seat wearing a gray hoodie.
"The shooting then begins," court records state. "Multiple shots are fired that impact the front of the residence. The shooting lasted less than a minute. Audio of gunfire can be heard on the surveillance video, and dust can be seen where the bullets impacted the siding of the home. Fired cartridge casings can be observed being ejected toward the front of the pickup. The pickup then fled eastbound on 8th Ave. N."
Another witness would tell investigators they had seen Goes Ahead and Knowshisgun that morning in the same truck and believed they were responsible for the shooting. The witness also alerted investigators to a previous incident on Oct. 28 in which Goes Ahead had shot Morrison in the wrist, although few details of that incident were revealed in the charging documents.
Minutes after the shooting, police located surveillance video of the same pickup involved in the shooting as it was being parked outside a residence at 312 S. 28th St. Police converged on that residence and another next door where several people were detained and Goes Ahead and Knowshisgun were eventually arrested.
A search of both residences later revealed numerous items of evidence, including a stolen Glock 22 .40-caliber pistol and Ruger P85 9mm-caliber pistol connected to evidence related to the shooting.
RELATED:
2 facing homicide charges in deaths of man and infant in Billings shooting
Infant killed in Billings shooting died one day before first birthday
