On the last evening of 1996, 31-year-old correctional officer Amos Williams Jr. went shopping at a Kmart in Hyattsville, Maryland. Around 9 p.m., as he returned to his vehicle he was approached by two men who attempted to rob him. One assailant shot Williams in the ankle, and while the men searched his belongings they found his correctional officer badge. Believing he could identify them, one of the robbers then shot Williams in the head. A passerby found him beside his vehicle and emergency responders pronounced him dead at the scene.

Investigators soon linked the handgun used in Williams’ killing to two suspects identified through a separate FBI inquiry into bank robberies and carjackings. Eighteen-year-old Aaron Devon Footes and 20-year-old James Albert West were arrested in late January 1997 and charged with first-degree murder. Prosecutors said Footes fired the fatal headshot and that West had shot Williams in the ankle; both men were tried and convicted of first-degree murder and received life plus 20 years. Williams was remembered by colleagues as a bright, ambitious officer.

Did anyone in the Hyattsville community at the time know Williams or notice suspicious activity in that Kmart parking lot that night?