Junius Benton was 15 when he was shot in the Robinson Place Subdivision of Monroe, Louisiana, on June 27, 2017. Police were called to Milliken and Long Streets for reports of shots fired; Benton was found wounded and taken to E.A. Conway Hospital. Blood near a storm drain marked where he had been struck.

An early arrest named Devontae Demarquis Coleman; he was indicted for second-degree murder on August 3, 2017. Benton reportedly identified another person, Jaylon Brown, as his shooter in his final moments. At a bench trial in March 2021, Coleman’s taped statement that he had been at the scene and fired a gun twice into the air was introduced. On April 12, 2021, the judge convicted Coleman of negligent homicide and sentenced him to three years at hard labor with credit for time served.

Coleman appealed, and on July 13, 2022, the Court of Appeal, Second Circuit, reversed the conviction, citing chaotic scene conditions and the trial evidence, including Benton’s dying identification pointing to another individual. Does anyone have information about the shooting or remember events on Milliken and Long Streets that night?