Brandon Michael Merritt was 19 when he was shot and killed at a South Anchorage gas station on the evening of May 25, 2016. He had returned to Anchorage earlier that month after finishing high school in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and was seated in the front of a car with friends at the Holiday on the 1500 block of Abbott Road when a verbal dispute with another customer escalated. Witnesses said Merritt stepped out of the vehicle and moved toward 23-year-old Andrew Robertson-Goughnour, who was openly carrying a .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol in a hip holster.

Robertson-Goughnour drew the weapon and fired once, striking Merritt; officers and medics found him dead at the scene and there were no outstanding suspects. Robertson-Goughnour was arrested the next day and first charged with murder; the criminal case later concluded with a plea and sentence. Memorial notices remember Merritt as a recent graduate who had returned to Alaska that spring.

Did anyone who knew Brandon or was at the station that night see what happened before the shooting?