On the evening of September 23, 2016, 31-year-old Kirby Johnson, a Black man, was found on a sidewalk in the 900 block of Johnson Street in the De Soto Estates neighborhood of Mansfield, Louisiana, with a single gunshot wound to the head. Emergency personnel took him first to De Soto Regional Hospital; he was later airlifted to University Health Center and was pronounced dead early the following morning. The Mansfield Police Department, assisted by the De Soto Parish Sheriff’s Office, investigated the shooting.

Investigators say the incident followed a confrontation the night before in which Johnson allegedly shot a BB gun at a group of young men. On the night he died, Johnson was reportedly pursued by that group near the playground on Johnson and Jacobs Streets and ran toward his apartment. During the pursuit, 19-year-old Darrius Smart allegedly raised a firearm and shot the fleeing Johnson. A grand jury indicted Smart for second-degree murder; he waived a jury trial, was found guilty of manslaughter, and was sentenced to 40 years at hard labor.

Did anyone in the area around Johnson and Jacobs Streets see the confrontation or the pursuit that night?