Tariq L. Houston was 17 when he was shot and killed on December 31, 2019, in the 1700 block of Putnam Avenue in Normal, Illinois. He was found in a parking lot with a gunshot wound to the abdomen and was taken to a local hospital, where the McLean County coroner pronounced him dead at 11:58 P.M.

The investigation resulted in the January 8, 2020 arrest of 19-year-old Dewon I. C. Griffin of Bloomington; he was charged with first-degree murder. Authorities also arrested 18-year-old Garrett Riley Ahlfield of Bloomington on multiple weapons-related counts after investigators said he fired five rounds into the air shortly after Houston was shot. Ahlfield was not charged with the homicide itself.

The loss of a teenage life at a social gathering remains the central, tragic fact of this case. If anyone has information about the events that night or knew Tariq, please share what you know with investigators.