On October 3, 2016, 21-year-old Keith Montel Johnson was found with gunshot wounds near a dumpster in the parking lot of an apartment complex in the 9300 block of Bales Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri. He was taken to a hospital and later died. Police reports and court records reconstruct the incident as a planned robbery: Johnson and an accomplice allegedly approached a parked car with a firearm and demanded property. One vehicle passenger ran off with a backpack, and during the chase that followed the fleeing person, who was armed, fired and fatally struck Johnson. That shooter later spoke to police and was not charged.

Witnesses said 22-year-old Cory J. Highsmith briefly comforted the mortally wounded Johnson before running. Officers caught Highsmith nearby carrying a black hooded sweatshirt that contained two handguns; investigators say he had taken Johnson’s weapon. Prosecutors charged Highsmith with second-degree murder, attempted first-degree robbery, and two counts of armed criminal action under Missouri’s felony murder rule. Does anyone have additional information about Johnson’s movements that afternoon or about witnesses at the apartment complex?