Melvon Smith was 19 when he was shot in Spanish Lake, St. Louis County, on the evening of Sunday, September 9, 2018. Police were called to the 1200 block of Walker Avenue around 6:45 p.m. for a reported shooting and found Smith in the front yard of a residence with a gunshot wound; a 17-year-old was also found nearby injured. Both were taken to a hospital. Smith died of his injuries the next day on Monday, September 10, 2018, and the case was classified as a homicide.

Friends and family knew Smith by the nickname 8 Man man; he had attended Hazelwood East High School and his funeral was held Saturday, September 22, 2018, at Life Changing Christian Church in Richmond Heights. In the weeks after the shooting, prosecutors charged 18-year-old Anthony C. Hykes with second-degree murder and armed criminal action, alleging an argument during a dice game escalated into a fight and Hykes shot Smith in the back of the head and then fled, discarding the firearm in a nearby sewer.

Did anyone in the area know Smith, the 17-year-old who was wounded, or the circumstances around that dice game?