On the afternoon of December 27, 2014, 39-year-old Jason Beals of Oklahoma City was shot multiple times inside a small garage apartment behind a house in the 3300 block of Southwest 51st Street and was pronounced dead at the scene. Neighbors later recalled the neighborhood’s familiar problems with drug and gang activity; gunfire around 4 p.m. marked the city’s sixty-first homicide of the year.

Court documents and witness statements described Jason walking into an upstairs apartment where 23-year-old Travis Wayne Richards was present. According to those accounts, Jason asked to see a black semi-automatic pistol Richards was holding; witnesses said Richards leveled the gun, fired several times at close range, then fled, dropping the firearm. Police recovered a semi-automatic pistol at the scene and soon named Richards as their suspect, seeking him on a murder complaint and warrants including first-degree murder and possession of a firearm after felony conviction.

Tips led investigators to Paducah, Kentucky, where deputies located and arrested Richards in a mobile home park in early January 2015; he was held as a fugitive on the Oklahoma murder warrant for return to Oklahoma County.

If anyone knew Jason or saw activity at that garage apartment that afternoon, please share what can help explain what happened.