On February 12, 2017, 28-year-old Wayne A. Bell was shot and killed outside a Waffle House on Stoneridge Drive in Columbia, South Carolina. The shooting happened about 2:30 a.m. as Bell attempted to de-escalate an argument between two other men in the restaurant’s parking lot. He was taken to a local hospital and died of his wound at 3:39 a.m.

Columbia police arrested 35-year-old Eric Nixon and charged him with murder. Prosecutors highlighted Nixon’s actions after the shooting — not calling 911, changing clothes, and concealing the gun — as evidence of guilt. The defense said Nixon acted in self-defense, and a bystander video that reportedly showed Bell following Nixon into the parking lot was central to that argument; Nixon’s lawyer said Bell approached with his hands in his back pockets.

In September 2018 a Richland County jury acquitted Eric Nixon after more than three hours of deliberation. With no conviction, the legal proceedings in Bell’s death were closed. Does anyone have information about Wayne Bell or the events that night?