Vicki Hoffman was 33 and a single mother living in north Tallahassee when she was shot multiple times at her apartment at the Plantations at Pine Lake shortly before 9 p.m. on Sunday, August 28, 2016. Her 10-year-old son made the 911 call and Hoffman was taken to Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, where she died the following morning. Three spent shell casings were recovered in the apartment kitchen.

Investigators say Hoffman had been arguing moments before the shooting with her roommate, 63-year-old Steve G. Lincoln. The boy told police Lincoln and his mother had been arguing; Hoffman, while slipping in and out of consciousness, identified Lincoln as the shooter. A firearm found in Lincoln’s vehicle was matched to the shell casings and projectiles recovered from Hoffman’s body. Lincoln was apprehended in southern Michigan three days after the killing, charged with first-degree murder, tried, and convicted by a Leon County jury; he was sentenced to life in prison.

Hoffman’s son, a Gilchrist Elementary School student at the time, is being cared for by family members.