Earl Young was 30 and trying to rebuild his life on Chicago’s South Shore when he was shot to death on the evening of August 3, 2018. Once a parentless high school dropout, he became an honor student, basketball star and prom king at Sullivan House High School, later mentoring students there, working as a cook, and planning a May wedding with his fiancée, Kendra Rodriguez. He was the father of infant Kourage and an older daughter, Alayla.

The fatal confrontation began as a neighborhood dispute over the couple’s pit bull puppies and where they relieved themselves. Witnesses say Earl argued with a downstairs neighbor at the back door of the building in the 7700 block of South Shore Drive. Kendra’s 14-year-old son heard raised voices and then five gunshots; he and others reported seeing the neighbor leaning over his balcony firing as Earl walked away. Earl was struck in the left arm and chest and pronounced dead at the scene; the medical examiner ruled his death a homicide. Police initially reported no one taken into custody and the neighbor fled the courtyard. Friends and family gathered afterward, mourning a man described by mentors as proof that a different path was possible.

Does anyone who knew Earl or saw that night have information that could help clarify what happened?