A Pacific man who shot and killed a man in Federal Way was sentenced to 20 years in prison for second-degree murder following a guilty plea.
On Jan. 9, a King County Superior Court judge sentenced PJ Langu, 22, of Pacific, to 240 months in the Washington State Department of Corrections for second-degree murder. Langu’s charge stems from an Aug. 7, 2023, case where Langu fatally shot Tevin Kamau, 23, in Federal Way.
Kamau’s brother, Baraka Kamau, told the judge at the sentencing hearing that he, Tevin Kamau, and their mother moved to the U.S. from Kenya in 2018, and that Tevin Kamau served as a father figure to him. Baraka Kamau told the judge that he will never be able to tell his brother that he loves him again, or speak with him about their goals, and now family gatherings are not the same.
“Losing those moments is a pain I will carry for the rest of my life,” Baraka Kamau told the judge.
Langu’s attorney, Mikk Lukk, recommended that Langu serve the minimum sentence of 175 months, plus the mandatory 48 months, for a total sentence of 223 months — about 18 and a half years. Lukk stated that he was asking for the minimum sentence considering Langu’s life experiences, his age, and because he has the compassion and empathy necessary to make progress and reform.
Langu’s sentencing recommendation included documents outlining Langu’s participation in a forensic assessment at the request of his attorney. In that assessment, Langu said that, leading up to the shooting of Kamau, he had been partying and hadn’t slept or eaten for three days. He said that before he shot Kamau, he smoked marijuana and also ingested several Percocets, alcohol and hallucinogenic mushrooms.
Documents state that the morning of the fatal shooting, Langu and a friend named “Reaper” got kicked out of a party by Kamau, who Langu said he did not know. Langu said Kamau said he was going to do something to him, and Langu then shot Kamau.
According to documents, Langu said the next thing he remembers is Reaper telling him to run. When he got arrested, he told officers to just take him in to sleep because he was tired.
Documents state that when Langu was arrested, he fell asleep multiple times throughout the interaction, and he smelled strongly of alcohol. Officers stated that Langu was generally not coherent, making comments about Mormonism and Joseph Smith.
According to documents, when Langu got charged with murder, he was surprised because he anticipated an assault charge.
At sentencing, Langu’s attorney stated that Langu had known Kamau for only a few hours before he shot him, and he thought he was going to be a new friend.
Details of the case
At about 10:40 a.m. Aug. 7, 2023, Federal Way officers responded to an apartment complex in the 400 block of South 325th Place after receiving a report of a shooting. According to documents, officers arrived on the scene to find Kamau with gunshot wounds to his chest, abdomen and wrist at the front entrance of an apartment unit.
Officers started life-saving efforts on Kamau, the victim of the shooting, as South King Fire personnel arrived on scene and transported him to Harborview Medical Center. Kamau was pronounced deceased at approximately 12:24 p.m., according to documents.
Surveillance footage shows Kamau stepping outside the apartment unit to talk to two men prior to the sound of two gunshots, with one of the men, identified as Langu, seen extending his arms and pulling them back. According to documents, after the shooting, the two men walked from the view of the camera into the parking lot.
Officers located a subject matching the descriptions of Langu at around 11 a.m. and detained him, discovering a handgun in his backpack identical to the handgun as seen in the surveillance footage. A criminal history check showed Langu held three prior convictions for felonies, including assault in the second degree, assault in the third degree and burglary in the first degree, all of which prohibited him from possessing a firearm.
According to charging documents, when the crime occurred, Langu had recently fled from a rehabilitative youth facility where he was serving a sentence for convictions of burglary in the first degree and assault in the second degree.
