Teen wounded in 2021 Timberview High School shooting was killed Monday in Arlington
A teenager who was shot by another student at Timberview High School in 2021 was killed in another shooting Monday evening at an Arlington apartment complex, according to police.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office identified Zacchaeus Selby-Mukum, 19, as the man who died in the shooting on Monday, Jan. 13.
Arlington police said the motive for Monday’s shooting is under investigation, but detectives have not found any evidence to suggest that the homicide is connected to the 2021 school shooting.
No arrests have been made, and police have not publicly identified suspects.
Arlington police responded to the shooting about 5:50 p.m. in the 2400 block of Laurelwood Drive, west of Texas 360. Officers found Selby-Mukum lying in the complex parking lot.
Witnesses told police that they heard arguing and then heard gunshots.
Police said Selby-Mukum was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Selby-Mukum lived at the apartment complex at which he was shot, according to medical examiner’s office records.
Selby-Mukum, then 15, was one of three people who were shot in October 2021 at Timberview High, which is in Arlington but part of the Mansfield Independent School District.
On the morning of Oct. 6, 2021, Selby entered an English class that was in progress at the school, authorities have said. Instead of going to his assigned seat near the door, he charged to the back of the room where 18-year-old classmate Timothy Simpkins was sitting. The two students fought, and Simpkins took a beating, eyewitnesses said at Simpkins’ trial.
Two coaches separated the teenagers and saw Simpkins hold a gun pointed at Selby. Simpkins shot Selby once and then again as the 15-year-old crawled on his back toward a stairwell, according to testimony and video. Simpkins fired on Selby a total of six times, wounding him in four locations on his body.
Another student, Shaniya McNeely, was grazed by a bullet. A teacher who arrived to help break up the fight, Calvin Pettitt, was shot in the back when he turned to run after learning Simpkins had a gun. All of the shooting victims survived.
Ten days before the 2021 shooting, Simpkins was smoking marijuana inside a car at an Arlington RaceTrac with three others, including Selby’s older brother. Two of them hit Simpkins on the back of the head with a gun and stole his marijuana and cash, Simpkins testified. Simpkins said he fired a handgun at the car the two left in.
According to court documents, Simpkins’ attorneys said he carried a gun to Timberview High School because he’d been threatened by Selby and his brother and was afraid for his life. He shot Selby in reaction to Selby’s attack on him, the defense argued. Pettitt and McNeely were “accidentally injured in the crossfire,” the attorneys said.
During the trial, Judge Ryan Hill declined to permit the jury to consider a self-defense justification in its deliberation.
Simpkins was found guilty of attempted capital murder at the July 2023 trial and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Prosecutors did not call Selby to testify as a witness at Simpkins’ trial, though he was under a subpoena filed by the state.
Simpkins’ defense attorneys asked Judge Hill to hold Selby in contempt of court because they alleged Selby violated the judge’s admonishment after he was sworn.
During the trial, Selby posted to Instagram a photo of Simpkins in the courtroom. Selby also sent a message to Charley Johnson, a witness in the case, a defense attorney who represented Simpkins argued. Johnson recorded the cellphone video of the fight at the high school and testified as a defense witness as the footage was played for the jury.
The judge declined to hold Selby in contempt. In a second admonishment, though, Hill directed Selby to refrain from posting to social media material connected to the trial or from contacting potential witnesses by phone or social media.
Prosecutors attempted to bring additional charges against Simpkins in 2024, but the charges were resolved with a plea bargain that did not result in additional prison time.
Police urged anyone with information about Monday’s homicide to call Detective VanTreeck at 817-459-5691.
Staff writer Emerson Clarridge contributed to this report.
This story was originally published January 13, 2025 at 8:53 PM.
