Marcellus Lamar Flynn, 39, was shot in the early morning hours of April 13, 2017, on Ernest Shelton Drive in the Lincoln Homes subdivision in Clarksville, Tennessee. Officers responded to reports of gunfire around 1:40 a.m.; Flynn was found with a gunshot wound, taken to Tennova Healthcare Clarksville, and pronounced dead.

The investigation went unsolved for several years and was listed among cold murder cases that police sought public help with in 2018. In January 2021 Clarksville Police detectives charged 32-year-old William Harvey Ellis, also known as Streetz, with criminal homicide in Flynn’s death. At the time the charge was filed, Ellis was in the Montgomery County Jail on unrelated offenses.

Court records and witness statements cited an argument between Flynn and Ellis earlier on the day of the shooting; one witness said Flynn had allegedly stolen two eight balls of cocaine from Ellis, and another reported seeing Ellis arrive, lower a car window, and shoot Flynn. Ellis’s record includes prior convictions for drug possession, aggravated assault, and other offenses.