On the night of July 25, 2020, 38-year-old Joseph Hecht was shot near Eighth and Locust streets in downtown Columbia, Missouri, around 12:40 a.m. Hecht was taken to a local hospital in a private vehicle after the disturbance; he died of his injuries the next day, July 26. He left behind a wife and two young daughters.

Columbia Police detectives identified suspects quickly. Twenty-seven-year-old Marlin Cortez Johnson turned himself in shortly after the shooting, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and armed criminal action. Johnson later pled guilty to second-degree murder and on July 31, 2023 was sentenced to 22 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections, with credit for more than 1,000 days already served. A second person, 23-year-old Kesan Tyree McNeal, was charged with accessory to second-degree murder and hindering prosecution of a felony for an alleged role in the aftermath; proceedings for McNeal continued separately.

Are there details about the disturbance that night or witnesses who were present at Eighth and Locust around 12:40 a.m.?