Wallace Berry Hayes III, 28, of Durham was found dead on January 24, 2019, in a room at HomeTowne Studios, 5008 N.C. Highway 55. He had a gunshot wound and Durham police opened a homicide investigation.

Authorities charged 25-year-old Frank Bernard Leathers Jr., also of Durham, in connection with Hayes’s killing; Leathers surrendered to police on January 28, 2019. Reports say Leathers faced additional charges that were unrelated to the homicide.

Hayes’s death was the sixth homicide recorded in Durham in 2019, a number cited as part of a broader wave of violent incidents the city was confronting at that time.

If anyone knew Wallace Berry Hayes III or has information about what happened at the HomeTowne Studios on January 24, 2019, please come forward.