On the evening of March 22, 2019, 22-year-old Austin L. Pierson was shot and killed during an altercation inside the Shell gas station at 2500 Brown Street in Alton, Illinois. Emergency responders pronounced him dead at the scene at 7:48 p.m. He was born September 17, 1996, in St. Louis and is survived by his fiancée Crystal Lawson, his parents Tanya Young McGee and Allen Pierson, step-parents, siblings, grandparents and other extended family. He worked as a window installer.

According to reports, the confrontation involved another 22-year-old Alton resident, Pedro Cisneros-Vega. After the shooting Cisneros-Vega fled, was involved in a hit-and-run in East Alton and then crashed at Illinois Route 140 and Route 159, where he was taken into custody. Court filings say the dispute began between the men’s girlfriends inside the gas station; as Cisneros-Vega tried to leave Austin reportedly attacked him, and Cisneros-Vega shot Austin twice. The family has spoken publicly about their grief and dissatisfaction with the outcome.

Did anyone in the area at the time see the confrontation inside the station or the vehicle incidents that followed?