Perseus Salichs, 33, was fatally shot just before dawn on December 19, 2017, after leaving the Tonic Bar off Seventh Avenue near Times Square. Witnesses and investigators described Salichs becoming drawn into an escalating dispute involving an upset woman and a man; police said a gunman displayed a firearm and then fired a single close-range shot into Salichs’ head/forehead. A bystander who tried to help reported blood on her hands while attempting CPR. Paramedics transported Salichs to NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, where he was pronounced dead.

Detectives pursued surveillance footage and interviewed people who had spilled onto the sidewalk as they tried to reconstruct the moments leading up to the shooting. Police initially considered whether the shooter and Salichs knew one another but later indicated they were leaning toward them being strangers, with the distraught woman as the apparent link. Christopher Rivas was publicly named as a person of interest, taken into custody, and charged in connection with the killing, including murder and related drug counts. Reporting later said Rivas was convicted and sentenced in connection with Salichs’ death.

Did anyone who was near the Tonic Bar that morning see how the dispute began or the person who ran off up Seventh Avenue?