Corey Hober was 35 when he was fatally shot in Syracuse after traveling there from Tupper Lake on May 27, 2020. Hober, who had struggled with addiction, and a friend went to Syracuse intending to buy drugs. In the early morning hours their path crossed with 22-year-old Lazear Coker-Hawkins in an apartment complex on Griffiths Street; court records say Coker-Hawkins, armed with a gun, attempted to rob them and after a verbal exchange shot Hober in the head.

First responders found Hober with a life-threatening upper-body injury and he was taken to Upstate University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Several witnesses to the robbery and shooting identified Coker-Hawkins to Syracuse Police; he was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder, first-degree robbery, and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, and held without bail at the Onondaga County Justice Center.

If anyone witnessed the events on Griffiths Street that morning or has information about Hober’s trip to Syracuse, please come forward.