Rico Thomas, 27, was shot on the morning of Friday, June 19, 2020, in the 700 block of Edison Street in Lafayette, Louisiana. He suffered a single gunshot wound to his upper torso and was taken to a local hospital, where he died. A male suspect fled the scene before officers arrived and the Lafayette Police Department opened an investigation.

Within days authorities identified and arrested 25-year-old Keon Woods of Carencro and charged him with second-degree murder. Investigators later reported Woods was the brother of Thomas’s girlfriend and that the shooting followed an argument between the two men. Thomas’s mother, Mildrina Hebert, said Woods approached her son and shot him without any preceding physical altercation or exchange of words.

Woods entered a plea agreement, pleading to manslaughter and receiving a 25-year sentence with hard labor. Thomas’s mother expressed dissatisfaction with the criminal justice outcome. Did anyone in Lafayette know Rico or have information about what led to that argument?