Robert James Eugene Ellis, 27, was shot and killed on March 25, 2016, in the 5500 block of South Vermont Avenue in the Vermont Slauson area of Los Angeles. Coroner’s records and LAPD accounts say Ellis was standing in a strip mall with a group when a gunman ran up from the north side, opened fire, and fled west on West 55th Street. Ellis was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead at 3:56 p.m.

Investigators later characterized the shooting as gang-related, although Ellis was not a gang member. Surveillance footage publicized by the LAPD showed a man in a gray hooded sweatshirt firing into the crowd, and a $50,000 reward was offered for information. On May 5, 2016, 22-year-old Tyrone Foster was arrested on suspicion of murder and charged; his trial began in late 2017. The victim’s mother, Lenell Ellis, became a persistent advocate, distributing hundreds of fliers and attending court dates to press for justice.

Did anyone in the Vermont Slauson area at the time see or hear anything that might still help clarify what happened?