Guilty plea accepted in Kingston fatal shooting

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WILKES-BARRE — A New Jersey man faces decades in state prison after admitting he fatally shot Peter McCoy during a parking dispute in Kingston more than a year ago.

Tyquan Lassiter, 27, of Hackensack, pled guilty to third-degree murder and illegal possession of a firearm for the fatal shooting in the parking lot of Leonardo’s Club on Sept. 10, 2022.

Luzerne County President Judge Michael T. Vough accepted the plea agreement entered by assistant district attorneys Drew P. McLaughlin and Julian F. Truskowski and Lassiter’s attorneys, Max Lubin and Nicole Lermitte, of Lermitte & Lubin, LLC, in Kingston, on Monday.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, Vough has the decision on the number of years Lassiter is to be sentenced, which is scheduled for Nov. 22.

The plea agreement was initially planned to be offered Friday, Sept. 22; However, Lassiter refused to exit his jail cell at the county correctional facility.

Lassiter appeared at Monday’s proceeding via video conference.

McLaughlin said McCoy died from a gunshot wound to his head.

Kingston police in court records say the shooting was recorded on surveillance cameras.

Lassiter was loitering in the parking lot of Leonardo’s Club with Jakir Bacote, 23, of Wilkes-Barre, and a third person when McCoy was backing out his vehicle, court records say.

McCoy asked Lassiter and Bacote to move when Kingston police alleged Lassiter and Bacote brandished handguns and each fired a round into the ground.

After McCoy got back into his vehicle, Lassiter walked around and fired several shots, striking McCoy in the head, court records say.

Lassiter fled the area and was captured by U.S. Marshals Service, Kingston police and county detectives in Hackensack on Sept. 23, 2022.

Bacote is charged with two counts of aggravated assault and a single count of illegal possession of a firearm. His trial is scheduled for December.

In an unrelated case, Bacote was sentenced in April by Judge David W. Lupas to one-to-two years in prison on a felony drug trafficking offense in Wilkes-Barre.