A family picnic at Martin Luther King Jr. Park in Buffalo on May 12, 2012, ended in tragedy when a gunman opened fire on a crowd of more than 100 people. Twenty-six-year-old Marquayle Lee was struck and critically injured; he died three days later, on May 15, 2012. Four other people were wounded, with two suffering permanent injuries — one left paraplegic and another blinded in one eye.

Investigators determined the attack was gang-related. The shooter, identified as Tariq Reek Brown of the Bailey Boys, reportedly fired a pistol-grip assault rifle into the gathering, having mistaken the picnickers for rival gang members. The case became part of a broader local and federal effort against violent street gangs.

Federal charges followed: Brown was charged in April 2013 in a racketeering indictment that included Lee’s murder and the wounding of others. What details about that day or the victims’ lives might help explain how a neighborhood celebration became a scene of such violence?