Dishawn Herndon was 21 when he was fatally shot in the early hours of January 26, 2022, in the parking lot of the Blue Flame Lounge on Harwell Road in Atlanta. An aspiring entrepreneur and custom sneaker designer who had traveled to Georgia as part of a shoe tour, he was reportedly meeting a client; his family says he graduated high school with honors at 16 and was driven and promising.

Police say a dispute inside the lounge spilled into the parking lot and escalated into gunfire; Herndon was caught in the crossfire and pronounced dead at the scene around 1:00 a.m. Within days detectives identified 25-year-old Dedric Howard as the primary suspect and obtained a murder warrant; he was apprehended on February 23, 2022. Howard’s attorney has said he left the club with family before the shooting and later surrendered, and described chaotic gunfire involving multiple individuals.

Herndon’s father filed a wrongful death suit against the Blue Flame Lounge, alleging inadequate security and a pattern of violence on or near the premises and seeking punitive damages. Did anyone who was at the club that night or who knew Dishawn see something that could help clarify what happened?