Thelonious Anthony Dukes Sr., 47, was working on his motorcycle in his New Orleans driveway on October 13, 2007, when several armed intruders ambushed him. The assailants forced Dukes and his wife into their home, herded them into a bathroom and demanded money and jewelry. During the confrontation one intruder threatened Dukes’ wife; Dukes drew his service weapon and a shootout followed. He was wounded in the lower torso and leg and his wife suffered a gunshot wound to her foot. The robbers fled and Dukes was taken to a hospital in critical condition.

Dukes died of those wounds on November 9, 2007. Investigators arrested two men about a month after the invasion; one was later released and the other, then 22, was jailed on a murder charge. Years later a federal inmate already serving a weapons sentence was charged in connection with this killing and others; he accepted a plea and was sentenced to 30 years. The other initially arrested suspect had charges dropped and no further arrests were reported. Did anyone in New Orleans at the time know or recognize the people who attacked the Dukes family?