Jonathan Lamar Stafford, 24, was killed after walking a friend and her children to their apartment in southwest Atlanta on the morning of November 26, 2021. Tatiana Willis-Riley had been receiving threatening calls and texts from her ex-boyfriend, Carlos Dill, who had shown up at her workplace and attempted to enter her home. Stafford accompanied Willis-Riley and her children to the Crystal Heights apartments on Boulder Park Drive to make sure they were safe.

Surveillance footage shows Dill lying between parked cars in the complex parking lot and emerging as the group passed. Prosecutors say Dill approached, produced a handgun and fired multiple times at the back of Stafford’s head. Stafford was taken to a nearby hospital and later died of his wounds. Dill was identified from the footage and arrested the same day.

What details about that night or the people involved might help explain how Dill was able to lie in wait in the parking lot?