On the evening of October 7, 2021, 18-year-old O’Brien Deshaun Henley Jr was shot while sitting inside a white Chevrolet truck at The Social Murph apartment complex on Wenlon Drive in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Witnesses reported hearing about eight shots, a pause, then four or five more. Shots were fired through the passenger side of the vehicle; Henley was taken to St. Thomas Rutherford Hospital and died shortly after arrival.

O’Brien, known as Pooky to family and friends, was a Black/African American young man from Brownsville, Tennessee. He had moved to Murfreesboro to live with his father, had graduated high school, and was attending barber school. His mother, Crystal Watkins, describes him as her only son and remembers him as vibrant with a bright future.

The Murfreesboro Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division is leading the investigation; Detective Richard Presley is the case officer. Investigators describe the inquiry as frustrating because no suspects have been publicly identified and no arrests have been made. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Presley or submit an anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers. Did anyone in the area see or hear anything that night that could help the investigation?