Howard Tony A. Sterling was a 53-year-old Black man known in Red Hook, Brooklyn, as the Santa Clause of Red Hook for his generosity. On the morning of October 5, 2014, he was found in his Red Hook Houses apartment with a gunshot wound to his leg. Police and medics transported him to New York Methodist Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The death was ruled a homicide and was the first in the 76th precinct that year.

Two men, Bobby Boomer and Omar Gray, were arrested in December 2014 on an attempted-robbery-gone-wrong theory that alleged Boomer shot Sterling in the leg before they fled. Prosecutors relied on witness testimony and video surveillance, but the defense challenged the witnesses and pointed to inconsistent forensic links: a fingerprint in the apartment did not match Sterling, Boomer, or Gray, and DNA from a bedroom dresser was not compared to the victim. Boomer was acquitted in August 2016 and charges against Gray were dismissed in September 2016; both were released after two years in pretrial detention and the murder remains unsolved.

Did anyone in Red Hook know Tony Sterling well enough to recall his movements or the people who visited his building around October 5, 2014?