Four alleged members of the Hoover gang are facing federal charges for the 2020 murder of an Uber driver in Portland, Oregon, in what authorities say was a tragic case of mistaken identity. The accused are Taezhon Tyreik Kelly, 23; Anthony Devion Bagsby, 32; Delane William Roy, 25; and Cocoa Dalonta Taplin, 28.
The indictment, unsealed by the U.S. Attorney's Office, charged the four with murder in aid of racketeering, along with other firearm-related offenses. According to KGW.com, these charges hold severe consequences, as they are tied to federal death penalty statutes, although prosecutors have not yet declared if they will seek this punishment.
The victim, 23-year-old Dhulfiqar Kareem Mseer, was a refugee from Iraq and a newlywed with no gang ties. Mseer was gunned down while waiting to pick up a passenger in his capacity as an Uber driver. According to OregonLive, the shooting occurred just after midnight on December 12, 2020, on Northeast Stafford Avenue, near 11th Street.
Arrests were made across state lines, with Bagsby and Taplin nabbed in Portland, while Kelly and Roy were apprehended in North Texas and west Louisiana, respectively. Mseer suffered over seventy gunshot wounds in the attack. KOIN reports that Mseer later succumbed to his injuries in a hospital a few days following the assault.
The case has now moved into the federal courts, with two of the suspects appearing before a judge in Portland. As the legal proceedings unfold, a city reckons with the echoes of violence and the senseless loss of life — a man engaged in the simple act of earning a living, his dreams and aspirations extinguished on an otherwise quiet street corner.
