On the morning of April 10, 2022, Vernon Williams, 60, was found dead from a gunshot wound in the 900 block of Melrose Avenue South in Saint Petersburg, Florida. Officers responded to a report of a bleeding man around 7:15 a.m. and discovered Williams at the scene. Authorities described the shooting as an unprovoked attack while he was walking and opened a homicide investigation.

Investigators quickly developed leads and identified a person of interest. Police say the shootings in Vernon Williams’s case and a similar, separate killing two days later — of 24-year-old Corlenzo Williams — appeared random; in both incidents the shooter reportedly approached the victims, spoke to them, and then shot them. Law enforcement arrested 34-year-old Johnny Carnegie in nearby Hillsborough County on April 13, 2022, and later charged him with first-degree murder in both deaths. Prosecutors announced in June 2022 that they would seek the death penalty, and the case was pending trial at that time.

Does anyone who knew Vernon, or who was in the Melrose Avenue South area that morning, have information that could help investigators?