Juan Michael Ross was 23 when he was fatally shot on the afternoon of Sunday, October 4, 2020, in the 9600 block of Basket Ring Road in Columbia, Maryland. Howard County Police responded about 2:30 p.m.; Ross suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigators early on concluded the shooting was not random and that Ross had been specifically targeted. Detectives initially considered a possible drug-related motive, and the inquiry later developed into an alleged murder-for-hire plot tied to a belief by one suspect that Ross was cooperating with law enforcement. A federal indictment named Jourdain Larose, also known as JBlacc, as having solicited others to kill Ross and allegedly supplying a gun; prosecutors say Braxton and Thomas were then enlisted to carry out the killing.

Several arrests followed: Daquante Donte Thomas and Tyrik Michael Braxton were arrested in November 2020, and Larose was later charged in the federal indictment.