On the evening of March 15, 2001, Aliquippa Police Officer James Naim, 32, was on foot patrol at the Linmar Terrace housing complex when an assailant came up behind him and shot him in the head with a handgun, killing him instantly. Naim, a U.S. Navy veteran, had been with the Aliquippa Police Department about 14 months and was assigned to a sub-station set up to address crime and drug problems in the area.

The investigation produced arrests: Jamie Brown, then 24; Darnell Hines, then 18; and Acey Taylor III, then 18. Charges against Hines were withdrawn after he agreed to testify against the others; he had given multiple, conflicting accounts before implicating Brown as the shooter. A jury later acquitted Taylor and convicted Brown of third-degree murder; Brown was sentenced to 20 to 40 years and has maintained his innocence.

In subsequent years evidence not shown at the original trial surfaced, including allegations that another man, Anthony Tusweet Smith, told others he killed Officer Naim. The state Supreme Court has ordered lower courts to reconsider Brown’s conviction in light of that material. Does anyone have information about Naim, the Linmar Terrace area that night, or the people involved?