John Flores Martinez, an 18-year-old from Mount Airy, North Carolina, was found with multiple gunshot wounds lying in the middle of the road at the corner of North Main Street and Jones School Road on September 22, 2021. He was taken to Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Hospital, where he died of his injuries.

After months of investigative work and numerous interviews, 28-year-old Marques Reginald Hatcher of Dobson, North Carolina, was arrested by the Mount Airy Police Department, the Surry County Sheriff’s Office and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. Hatcher was charged with Martinez’s murder and was being held in the Surry County Jail without bond.

The killing has had a deep effect on Martinez’s family and the Mount Airy community. Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to come forward to assist the ongoing investigation.