John Winston Lennon was 40 when he was shot and killed outside the Dakota on the Upper West Side on December 8, 1980. That evening he and Yoko Ono returned to the building around 10:50 p.m. after a late session at the Record Plant. A man waiting at the entrance approached for an autograph earlier that day; seconds after Lennon and Ono stepped onto 72nd Street, the man drew a .38 Special revolver and fired five hollow-point rounds at close range, four striking Lennon in the back.

He was rushed to Roosevelt Hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival at 11:15 p.m. The shooter did not flee and was taken into custody at the scene holding a copy of The Catcher in the Rye; the weapon was identified as a Charter Arms Undercover .38 Special revolver. In the immediate aftermath, vigils and moments of silence formed outside the hospital and the Dakota as the city and the world absorbed the loss.

Did anyone who was in the area that night notice anything the police might have missed?