Phillip A. Diaz, 23, of Independence, Missouri, was found critically injured from a gunshot wound in the parking lot of Hawthorne Place Apartments in the 16700 block of East Fifth Street North on December 4, 2016. First responders tried to resuscitate him at the scene; he was taken to a hospital and later died. The shooting was recorded as the city’s seventh homicide that year.

Investigators noted tire tracks leaving the parking lot and obtained a search warrant for Diaz’s cellphone. An outgoing call and text messages earlier that day linked him to an acquaintance, Tyrone Eugene Willard II. Police tied a vehicle matching one seen at the scene to an associate of Willard and found traces of human blood inside.

Jackson County prosecutors charged 20-year-old Tyrone Eugene Willard II of Kansas City with second-degree murder and distribution of a controlled substance. Court records state Diaz had met Willard and another man at the complex for a marijuana transaction; Willard allegedly told investigators he met Diaz for the deal but that an accomplice fired the fatal shot inside the vehicle before they fled. Did anyone in the area see Diaz’s vehicle, the suspects, or the car that left southbound from the parking lot that afternoon?