Pullman teens facing felony charges in homicide investigation
On an open hillside in a park overlooking Pullman Thursday evening where he and about 100 family and friends came to memorialize his brother, Tyler Knight, touched on the aching frustration of questions and missing details surrounding Tim Reeves’ death.
Reeves, 18, of Pullman was killed by a gunshot apparently during a camping trip with friends early this week. Keagan Tennant, the son of Pullman Police Commander Chris Tennant, and Matthew McKetta are the subject of a Latah County law enforcement manhunt in connection with Reeves’ death.
Tennant, 17, is wanted for involuntary manslaughter, attempted first degree murder, principal to failure to notify law enforcement of a death, conspiracy to notify law enforcement or the coroner of a death, conspiracy to commit failure to notify authorities of a death, principal to destruction, alteration or concealment of evidence and conspiracy to compromise evidence. The charges are felonies. McKetta, 18, is being charged with the failure to notify and evidence corruption charges. Both are being charged as adults.
The two are believed to have fled in a stolen white 2002 Pontiac Grand Prix, Idaho plate number IBX8758.
That vehicle was recovered by the Ferry County Sherriff’s Office Friday.
“We don’t really know the whole story,” said Knight, 19, Thursday.
What the family had been told to that point by law enforcement officials was that Reeves was reportedly killed by an accidental discharge. His body was wrapped in a tarp and dumped near Troy, Idaho. The information was apparently transmitted to officers by someone involved in the incident who called law enforcement.
“Somebody was feeling bad about it,” said Knight. “The cops picked him up,” he said of Reeves. “We did not find out until late Wednesday night he was dead.”
Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson did not release additional information about Reeves’ death or the search for Tennant and McKetta Friday.
At the memorial, Knight called Reeves “an easygoing guy, always trying to make somebody else smile.”
The brief ceremony at dusk consisted of the release of colorful balloons containing messages to Reeves. On a soft summer evening, they rose and bobbed in a darkening sky and drifted east in a loose flock.
Sandi Davis, of Yakima, in a neat, precise hand, penned a lengthy text in red ink on a lilac balloon.
“I told him to hold his family. They’re going to need to feel him for the rest of time,” she said. She added she also “gave him a list of people to say hi to.”
As the balloons headed into the sky they were accompanied by collective sighs and sobs from the group and a plaintive cry “love you, Bubba.”