Tyjuan Bazemore

Introduction

Tyjuan Bazemore, 35, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced on October 23, 2026 to 20 years in prison for the shooting death of his girlfriend, 27-year-old Nyesha Tranae Walden-Hatcher, who was killed inside her apartment in the early hours of February 2, 2026. Bazemore pleaded guilty on July 10, 2026 to one count of second-degree murder while armed, and Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman sentenced him to two decades in prison to be followed by five years of supervised release. The case, announced by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro, carried a detail that sharpened its public reckoning: at the time he killed Walden-Hatcher, Bazemore had two open domestic violence assault cases concerning her, and a court order — issued as a condition of his release in those cases — to stay away from her and to not possess firearms.

Background Information

Court records and the government’s sentencing announcement sketch Bazemore as a District resident with an active domestic-violence court history involving the woman he would later kill. At the time of the February 2026 shooting he was facing two open domestic violence assault cases concerning Walden-Hatcher, and had been ordered to stay away from her and to have no firearms — conditions issued as part of his release in those earlier cases. Walden-Hatcher was 27. The two were together at her apartment at 3120 16th Street, Apartment #13, on the night of the killing, after a trip to a liquor store. Nothing in the government’s announcement suggests the protection order was violated with anything other than fatal consequence; the sentencing release documents the sequence in which the order, the prior cases and the firearm all converged in one apartment in Northwest Washington.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted and sentenced. Bazemore pleaded guilty to second-degree murder while armed on July 10, 2026, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison on October 23, 2026. There is no trial record to dispute — the conviction is his own plea.

According to the government’s evidence, Bazemore shot Walden-Hatcher in the head inside her apartment after the two returned from the liquor store, causing her death. He then ran upstairs before returning downstairs several times, put on shoes and a hoodie, attempted to knock down the camera at the foot of the first-floor staircase, and eventually left the apartment complex. At approximately 2:57 a.m., Metropolitan Police Department officers were dispatched to the apartment; after no one responded at the door, officers pushed it open and found Walden-Hatcher unresponsive on the floor with a single gunshot wound to the head. Despite life-saving efforts she was pronounced dead at the scene. After the killing, Bazemore fled to Connecticut, where he was located and extradited back to the District to face the charge. The sentencing release also cites CCTV evidence from the building: screenshots of Bazemore from the first-floor camera, and footage of him running toward the staircase with a black handgun — the documentary spine of the case he ultimately admitted by plea.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The court’s sentence — 20 years at imprisonment for a killing committed while under a no-contact and no-firearms order tied to the same victim — lands in a city where violation-of-order domestic homicides are a recurring point of public anger, and the release makes a point of recording the two open cases and the conditions Bazemore ignored. U.S. Attorney Pirro’s office announced the sentence the day it was imposed, before Judge Edelman, who also ordered five years of supervised release to follow the prison term. The investigation was carried out by the Metropolitan Police Department and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Dinan; the case number, 2026 CF1 003647, closes the loop on a killing that ran from a February 911 call to an October sentencing in under nine months. No public statement from Bazemore or his defense appears in the government’s account of the sentencing.

Current Status

Bazemore, 35, is in Department of Corrections custody serving a 20-year sentence for second-degree murder while armed, followed by five years of supervised release; the plea and sentence are final court judgments. The two open domestic violence assault cases that predated the killing were overtaken by his murder plea. Under District of Columbia sentencing law, second-degree murder while armed carries parole eligibility before the full term expires, but the recorded judgment — guilty plea, 20 years, five years supervised release — is the operative fact of his status today.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Bazemore’s life sentence in practical terms began the night he fled to Connecticut: the extradition, the murder plea and the two-decade term foreclose the ordinary arc of his adult life, and the court’s findings about the protection order and the prior assault cases will follow him through any future parole review. For Walden-Hatcher’s family, the resolution arrived without a trial — the guilty plea in July meant the evidence, including the staircase camera footage and the reconstruction of Bazemore’s movements after the shooting, never had to be tested before a jury. The case stands as the district attorney’s office chose to present it: a killing that happened inside the exact gap a no-contact order is supposed to close, committed by a man the system was already watching.

Sources

• U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Columbia, “Boyfriend Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison for Killing His Romantic Partner,” October 23, 2026 — source