Andre Louis Hicks, known professionally as Mac Dre, was 34 when he was killed in Kansas City, Missouri, on the early morning of November 1, 2004. Hicks was a passenger in a white van traveling northbound on U.S. Highway 71 after a scheduled concert in the city had been cancelled. A stolen black Infiniti G35 pulled alongside the van and occupants opened fire with an assault rifle, riddling the vehicle. The van swerved across the highway median and crashed into a ditch; Hicks was thrown from the vehicle and died from a gunshot wound to the back of the neck.

Investigators encountered limited cooperation from witnesses, including the surviving van driver and associates, and said the shooting may have been linked to a financial dispute or a conflict within the rap music industry.

The aftermath included retaliatory violence: in May 2005 Watkins and a friend, Jermaine Akins, were found murdered in Las Vegas. Authorities later arrested Andre Mac Minister Dow and Jason Mathis in connection with those Las Vegas killings; prosecutors said the murders were retribution for Hicks’ death, and in 2008 a jury convicted Dow and Mathis of first-degree murder and conspiracy. Was anyone who attended that Kansas City event or who traveled on U.S. Highway 71 that night willing to share what they saw?