Puyallup Father’s Killing Sparks Murder Charge, Self-Defense Dispute

Tyriek Assante Patterson, a 36-year-old father from Puyallup, was found with multiple gunshot wounds before dawn on April 12, and his death has already turned into a sharp courtroom fight over murder versus self-defense. The question now is not only who pulled the trigger, but whether the shooting in the Wynstone Townhomes area was a criminal killing or a lawful response to a supposed home invasion.

Pierce County deputies responded at about 4:19 to 4:20 a.m. after a neighbor called 911 to report yelling and loud banging next door. Patterson was found dead at the scene. The shooting was reported in the 12200 block of Canyon Road East, and investigators spent the early hours processing evidence and interviewing witnesses while deputies initially described the case as an isolated incident.

Moses Levin Karovsky, 24, was later charged with two counts of second-degree murder. He turned himself in to Seattle police and was then taken into custody. At his arraignment on Friday, April 17, he pleaded not guilty. A judge set bail at $500,000, citing concerns that he could pose a danger to the community.

Karovsky’s attorney has argued that the shooting happened in response to a home invasion at a Puyallup residence, a claim that puts the case squarely into self-defense territory. That defense theory now collides with the murder charge, and the evidence will have to answer the hardest question in the case: what happened in the minutes before Patterson was shot, and whether Karovsky’s version can survive scrutiny from forensic findings, witness accounts, and any available surveillance.

Patterson’s family has pushed back with a very different picture of the man who died. His mother, Kyro Grooms, described him as a hardworking single father and “a protector.” His father, Errold Patterson, said he believed another person was involved in the killing. Family members also said Patterson had been visiting his girlfriend with a friend before the shooting and that he allegedly discovered his girlfriend with another man, a detail that could become central as investigators try to reconstruct the confrontation inside or around the home.

For now, the case stands at a familiar but critical true-crime fault line: one dead father, one defendant in custody, and two competing stories that will rise or fall on the evidence.