On the early morning of July 4, 2017, in Cicero, New York, 40-year-old Christopher Ross was shot and killed at a residence on Chinkapin Circle. Ross and his brother-in-law, James Ball, had been drinking and got into a heated argument that turned physical. Ball’s wife got Ross outside the house, but Ball then retrieved a .22 caliber rifle and shot Ross multiple times in the upper body. Ross was taken to a hospital and died shortly after arriving.

James Ball, then 55 and an elementary school teacher in the North Syracuse Central School District, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and first-degree criminal use of a firearm. An Onondaga County judge dismissed an initial murder indictment because prosecutors failed to instruct the grand jury properly about justifiable use of physical force in defense of a premises; prosecutors intended to seek a new grand jury. In March 2022 Ball pleaded guilty to reckless manslaughter and was later sentenced to 2–6 years in state prison for Ross’s death.

Did anyone in the Cicero area witness the disturbance that night or have information about what led to the shooting?