According to The Tacoma News Tribune, a Pierce County jury found 21-year-old Zachariah Burnett Lovett not guilty of first-degree murder, first-degree assault and drive-by shooting last Monday in the June 2024 killing of 23-year-old Brichaun Pringle at a Tacoma overlook known locally as The View. Lovett, who was 19 at the time of the shooting, had argued he fired in self-defense after Pringle pointed a pistol at him during a brawl that erupted between two groups of strangers.
The verdict, handed down Sept. 28, closes out the criminal trial over Pringle's death but not Lovett's legal troubles. According to the Tacoma News Tribune, Lovett separately pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of the firearm used in the shooting, admitting he was barred from having a gun because of prior felony convictions for robbery and burglary. He remains in custody at the Pierce County Jail on a no-bail hold and is scheduled for sentencing on Nov. 6.
A Fight That Turned Deadly at a Scenic Overlook
The shooting happened shortly after 11 p.m. on June 18, 2024, near the McKinley neighborhood in eastside Tacoma, at a spot in the 3200 block of East F Street that locals call The View, according to the same report. Pringle had arrived with three other men, while Lovett showed up separately with a female companion in a Chrysler 200, where Lovett's group met up with two other people already there.
What started as an argument between the two groups escalated into a shoving match and brawl, the outlet reports. During the chaos, Lovett retrieved an AR pistol while Pringle demanded a Glock pistol from a friend. Prosecutors accused Lovett of murdering Pringle and assaulting two of his friends during the melee, alleging that Lovett fired at people involved in the altercation.
Competing Accounts of Who Fired First
The defense told jurors Pringle pointed the Glock directly at Lovett, who believed he was about to be killed, and that Lovett continued defending himself and his group even as he fled the scene, per the Tacoma outlet's reporting. Pringle was struck by two bullets, in the arm and chest, and the Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office previously listed his manner of death as a homicide, as thenewstribune.com reported shortly after the killing. The gunfire sent the crowd at the viewpoint scattering.
Separate earlier reporting from the same outlet described additional gunfire as Lovett tried to clear a jammed gun by firing it, then allegedly exchanged shots with another man further down the street, with neither person struck in that exchange. A witness told the outlet she heard gunshots and confirmed Lovett was allegedly firing at the group, though she said she was unsure who fired first. The same witness said she saw Lovett hanging out of the Chrysler's passenger door, allegedly firing three to four more rounds toward the fleeing group as the woman accompanying him drove them away, prosecutors alleging he recklessly fired into the neighborhood during the getaway.
Why Jurors Said They Acquitted Lovett
Jurors were not asked to decide outright whether Lovett acted in self-defense, according to the Tacoma News Tribune's account of the trial's outcome. Instead, prosecutor Adam Faber said jurors simply did not believe the state had disproved Lovett's self-defense claim beyond a reasonable doubt. Defense attorney Eric Trujillo, of the Department of Assigned Counsel, said the jury was deliberative and attentive throughout the proceedings, though he declined to comment on Lovett's second, still-pending criminal case.
Under Washington law, a homicide can be ruled justifiable in cases of lawful self-defense when there is reasonable ground to believe a felony or great personal injury is about to occur, per RCW 9A.16.050. Separately, state law under RCW 9A.16.110 requires courts to instruct juries to return a special verdict form when self-defense has been submitted to them and the jury finds a defendant not guilty.
A Second Case Still Pending
Lovett faces a separate set of assault and drive-by shooting charges stemming from an incident about one week after Pringle's death, at a Bonney Lake apartment complex. In that case, Lovett was allegedly in the passenger seat of a vehicle when he allegedly shot multiple times at a woman's ex-boyfriend, wounding the man in the arm and grazing his back twice, as reported by The Tacoma News Tribune. Trujillo has declined to discuss that case while it remains pending.
