Ogontz man to stand trial in shooting death of woman driving van on North Broad Street

Timothy B. Barnes killed a woman he hadn’t intended to shoot, authorities say.

The 33-year-old man from the Ogontz section of the city was ordered Wednesday to stand trial for murder in the death of 23-year-old Tyisha Timmons, who was shot Feb. 21 while driving her father’s 1988 Dodge Ram conversion van with six passengers, including three young children.

Prosecutors said Timmons, of Ogontz, was an innocent victim whose van was mistaken for another vehicle that had been involved in an earlier gang-style shooting.

According to a transcript of testimony in a Nov. 20 hearing from police and the victim’s twin sister, Myisha, the van carried seven people, including Tyisha, who was driving, as well as Myisha, two adult female friends, and children ages 4, 2, and 1.

Around 8 p.m., Tyisha Timmons and her passengers were driving on 16th Street near Nedro Street when they heard gunshots. Tyisha turned right onto Nedro, and when they reached a gas station at Old York Road, one of the women, saying she was scared, left the van and entered the station’s store.

Tyisha continued driving, but her sister persuaded her to circle back to the gas station and pick up their friend. When Tyisha pulled onto the 5700 block of North Broad Street, she was flanked by two vehicles, a 2004 Chrysler Sebring and an early-2000s-model Ford Taurus.

Barnes, of the 1500 block of West Nedro, was allegedly driving the Sebring, and police testified Wednesday that he was coordinating with the driver of the Taurus. At a stop light, the Taurus pulled up to the van’s left side, and when the light changed, the Taurus passenger fired at the van’s driver’s side, according to testimony.

Tyisha was shot multiple times in a hip and once in the head, and the car veered across Broad Street and Old York Road and crashed into a wall.

Municipal Court Judge James M. DeLeon scheduled Barnes' arraignment for Jan. 9, 2019.