Allen Jerome Cooper Jr., 17, was shot and killed on the night of April 26, 2017, in Lancaster, South Carolina. Cooper had just finished playing in a community basketball game at the Hope on the Hill Recreation Center on West Meeting Street and was leaving the facility around 9:00 p.m. when a gunfight erupted in the parking lot. Police described a shootout between rival gangs with shots fired from multiple directions; Cooper, who was not a gang member, was struck during the crossfire and died at the scene.

Investigators from the Lancaster Police Department, the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office, and the State Law Enforcement Division linked the atmosphere of violence to a separate April 11 homicide of 19-year-old MarQuise Deshun Evans and said the gunfire that killed Cooper was likely planned. Four teenagers were arrested and charged in the Evans killing, but no one was ever formally charged in Cooper’s death. The specific person or persons who fired the fatal shot have not been publicly identified or convicted.

If anyone attended the game or was in the parking lot that night and has information that could clarify who fired the fatal shot, please share what is known with investigators.