On the night of October 24, 2014, a dispute outside a Woodell Avenue home in Cheektowaga, New York, ended with 54-year-old tenant Joseph P. Lawrence Jr. shot once in the abdomen. Lawrence was taken to Erie County Medical Center and died during surgery. He had been living as a tenant in a building owned by his friend, 54-year-old Thomas Szczesniak; the two had spent part of the evening together at a bar before returning home and later argued outside the residence.

Szczesniak was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon. He pleaded not guilty, claiming self-defense; the prosecution argued the shooting was unjustified. Family members, including Lawrence’s mother Nancy Kimbrough, attended the trial and expressed their grief. The jury convicted Szczesniak of the lesser offense of second-degree manslaughter, and in September 2015 a judge sentenced him to five to fifteen years; Szczesniak apologized to the victim’s family before sentencing.