Death by Fame on ID: What happened to Tara Correa-McMullen?

Actress Tara Correa-McMullen was 16 years old when she was killed on October 21, 2005, outside an apartment in Inglewood, California. She was shot five times in the torso by a 22-year-old gang member Damien Watts. Tara was dating a gang member, who was ten years older than her when she got caught in the gang violence which took her life.

The actress, who had featured along with Martin Lawrence and Amy Brenneman, had just begun her career in Hollywood when she was reportedly hanging out with the wrong crowd. She made her presence known when she appeared in Steve Carr's Rebound. Following that, she managed to secure a recurring role in Judge Amy on CBS.

Investigation Discovery's show Death by Fame aired an episode titled A Rising Star Shot Down about Tara's murder. The episode was aired at 9 pm EST on January 22, 2024, on Investigation Discovery. Its synopsis reads:

"Tara Correa-McMullen is only 15 when she rises from the tough streets of LA to star alongside some of Hollywood’s biggest stars; a romance with the wrong person takes her out of the spotlight forever."

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What happened to Tara Correa-McMullen?

Tara Correa-McMullen was a teenager who landed a role in Steve Carr's Rebound (2005) through her mother, Devra Correa's position in a casting agency. Tara appeared alongside Martin Lawrence before she was cast in the CBS TV series Judging Amy alongside Amy Brenneman.

However, as mentioned before, the teen got entangled with the wrong crowd which led to her being shot to death in an incident of gang violence. She was reportedly shot five times in the torso in a gang shooting that took place in front of an apartment in Inglewood on October 21, 2005, at around 5:45 pm. At the time, 16-year-old Tara Correa McMullen was hanging out with some friends in front of the East Plymouth Street building.

Apart from the teen actor, two other men were also shot but they managed to survive. However, McMullen was taken to a hospital where she passed away three hours later.

Initially, the Inglewood police were unable to decide the motive behind the shooting and concluded the event to be a "walk-up gang-related shooting", per NBC News. Sgt. Steve Overly commented that while Tara wasn't a gang member, she must have been "at the wrong place at the wrong time."

Tara Correa-McMullen had grown up on the East Coast with her sister Abigail. The two then moved in with their mother, Mary Devra Correa to Northern California in 1996 where she studied at Claremont Middle School. The family then moved to Venice where Tara joined the Venice High School while her mother started working at a casting agency.

Tara and her family initially lived out of inexpensive hotels but moved to a neighborhood that fell under "gang territory." When she was 15, Tara began dating a gang member who was ten years older than her and had a prison record.

Tara's friend from school, Maurice Tipton, spoke to NBC News about the relationship and claimed that Tara had told her some things about it.

"She told me that he had locked her in the room, and he threatened to blow her brains out if she left. I looked into her eyes, and I didn’t see the beautiful, blue eyes that I usually see. I just saw darkness. It was like she wasn’t even there no more." Maurice recalled.

Tara Correa-McMullen's 2005 led to the conviction of the shooter and another gang member, Damien Watts. Watts was involved in three shootings in October 2005.