A violent confrontation in Kansas City, Missouri, in the summer of 2020 ended with the death of 33-year-old Michael Brown. On the evening of August 1, police responded to a reported shooting near 12th and Lawndale and found Brown in the street with a gunshot wound. He was taken to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries and died three days later, on August 4, 2020.

Investigators focused on a teenage suspect, Thorne McKendrick. Security camera footage reportedly shows McKendrick arriving on a bicycle, Brown coming out of his house and grabbing McKendrick from behind, and a struggle near a vehicle during which McKendrick shot Brown. Witnesses, including Brown’s father, identified McKendrick from the footage; court documents say Brown had once tried to mentor the younger man and that McKendrick had been a former neighbor of Brown’s father.

McKendrick, 19 at the time of the shooting, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and armed criminal action. In October 2021 he pleaded guilty to those charges; sentencing was set for January of the following year. Did anyone in the area witness the events near 12th and Lawndale that night or know more about the relationship between Brown and McKendrick?