On March 16, 2021, Kortlin Keith Williams, a 20-year-old Black male, was killed in an ambush in the 1100 block of Montgomery Street in the Old North neighborhood of Saint Louis, Missouri. Williams had arrived by vehicle with his best friend Johnnie Jones and a third companion for what they believed was a narcotics transaction. The meeting was arranged via Facebook and turned out to be a setup intended to steal marijuana from the victims.

When the victims arrived, two men identified in charging documents as Antaveon Bernard Le’Vell Kent (alias Trauma Traumatized) and Demorion Little opened fire into the vehicle. Williams and Johnnie Jones were fatally shot; the third passenger survived. Officers later recovered more than 600 grams of marijuana from the victims’ vehicle. Federal prosecutors charged the defendants with conspiracy to distribute marijuana and using firearms in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, and both men pleaded guilty and received lengthy prison sentences in early 2023.

Are there local witnesses or anyone who knew Kortlin or Johnnie who can share information about that night or the lead-up to the meeting?