A 19-year-old wanted out of Texas is facing an attempted murder charge after police said he shot someone twice following an argument near a Knoxville intersection. Lamajay Donshay Hill was arrested on October 31, and the condition of the person he allegedly shot remained unknown as of this week.
The shooting happened the previous Friday evening around 6 p.m. near Texas Avenue and Sherman Street, according to WVLT. Court records cited by the station say Hill shot the victim twice after the two got into an argument, though the station reported that the condition of the person who was shot is unknown at this time.
A witness told police they tried to step in between Hill and the victim during the altercation, per court documents reviewed by the station. It is not clear from the available records what sparked the dispute or whether the intervention played any role in how the confrontation ended.
Fugitive Charge Tied To Prior Texas Case
Hill was charged with attempted second-degree murder, employing a firearm with intent to go armed, and being a fugitive from justice, the station reported. Court documents say Hill fled Texas to avoid prosecution for a previous assault charge, adding a fugitive count on top of the allegations stemming from the Knoxville shooting.
The firearm charge echoes language found in Tennessee's criminal code addressing the use of a weapon during the commission of certain offenses. Tennessee Public Chapter 594 contains the statute's full text, but whether it applies to Hill's charges is unclear. Hill is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday.
Shooting Comes Amid Reported Drop In Knoxville Violence
The case lands against a backdrop of declining violent crime figures that the Knoxville Police Department has been touting in recent weeks. The department said violent crime is continuing to trend down to historically low levels in Knoxville, with homicides down 36% compared with last year and all seven homicide suspects from 2026 already arrested, the station reported in a separate article.
KPD also reported non-deadly shootings down 30% compared with the same point in 2025, along with a 44% year-to-date drop in reported car burglaries, including a 46% reduction in the Central District. Car thefts are down 25% and all property crimes are down 12% in 2026, according to the same report. Separately, the Knoxville Police Department has said that from January through March of 2026, the city recorded no murders at all, compared with four during the same stretch in 2025 and an average of five over the previous five years during that period, per the department's own release. Nothing in the available record ties those citywide trends directly to the shooting near Texas Avenue and Sherman Street.
