In the early evening of a Sunday in April 2014, 29-year-old Ivan Martinez was shot to death near Maria Hernandez Park in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The shooting happened around 6 p.m. outside 320 Suydam Street; Martinez sustained a gunshot wound to the head and was pronounced dead at the scene. He was reportedly with his four-year-old son at the time. Friends called him Brim and remembered him as a happy man devoted to his child, and a makeshift memorial was left where he died. Martinez lived with extended family on Troutman Street, several blocks away.

Within weeks the NYPD identified 22-year-old Christopher Ortiz of Suydam Street as the primary suspect. Authorities said the two men were seen walking together moments before an apparent dispute that escalated and led Ortiz to allegedly produce a gun and shoot Martinez multiple times. Ortiz was charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon and was arraigned in Kings County Criminal Court; he was held without bail. The motive for the argument has not been publicly disclosed.