On an April evening in 2015, 20-year-old Matthew Horne was found dead at about 9:30 p.m. on a basketball court near the Charles Lind Brown Activity Center on Greene Street in Beaufort, South Carolina. He had sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the chest, abdomen and legs, with many bullets striking him in the back. This was the second fatal shooting at that recreational area in three months.

Investigators say an earlier altercation involving Horne and another young man, Richard Snowten, had escalated to include 17-year-old Malik Shakur Stanfield and appears to have precipitated the confrontation. Witnesses reported Horne exchanged a handshake with Stanfield that night before Stanfield paced and opened fire. Facebook messages from the day before allegedly show Stanfield stating an intention to kill Horne, and Stanfield gave an inconsistent alibi while attempting to implicate Snowten. Two days into his 2017 trial, then 19-year-old Stanfield pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and weapon possession and received a 20-year sentence with credit for time served.

Family members said Horne had been trying to turn his life around in the weeks before his death, working with at-risk mentors and beginning mental health counseling. Did anyone on the court see or hear something that night that could still help clarify what happened?