Timothy Peter Gentry, 32, was shot and killed in the early morning hours of July 28, 2015, in the 1200 block of Beaufort Street in Columbia, South Carolina. He was found with a gunshot wound to his upper body and died after being taken to a local hospital. Gentry was a 2009 Clemson University graduate with a degree in Spanish who had worked with children at a church development center and participated in overseas charity work; he was training for a career in nursing at the time of his death.

Columbia police linked a suspect to the killing after a separate arrest. A few days after Gentry’s shooting, officers arrested a man, Ibin Kenta Patterson, following an armed robbery and a shootout with a police officer. The 9mm pistol recovered from Patterson was analyzed by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and matched ballistically to the weapon used to kill Gentry. An additional woman, Willette June Wilson, was charged with unlawfully transferring the firearm used in the crime.

In February 2016 Patterson was charged with Gentry’s murder and other serious offenses, and he later pleaded guilty. Does anyone have information about Gentry’s life in Columbia or the events of that July night that could help clarify what motivated the attack?