In the late morning of December 2, 2016, 37-year-old Jerry Howard Sr. was found lying in the street on Amelia Avenue in Rock Hill, South Carolina, suffering multiple gunshot wounds. He was taken to Piedmont Medical Center but did not survive. The shooting prompted a temporary lockdown at nearby Richmond Drive Elementary School while first responders worked the scene.

Howard had been married 22 years; his wife, Lakisha Howard, described her grief and said he had been shot and left in the street. The death also hit the local high school community: their son, Jerry Howard Jr., was a standout running back at Northwestern High School who was days away from signing a national letter of intent with Georgia Tech when his father was killed.

Rock Hill police later identified a suspect and by late January 2017 had arrested 52-year-old Dwayne Fitzgerald Sims on murder and weapons charges after finding 9-millimeter bullets at his residence; Sims’ prior criminal history led to an initial weapons arrest. In September 2018 Sims entered an Alford plea to voluntary manslaughter and a weapons charge and received a 15-year sentence.

Did anyone in Rock Hill know Jerry Howard Sr. or see anything on Amelia Avenue that morning?