On the morning of June 21, 2016, in Huntsville, Alabama, 16-year-old Mustafa Bearfield, a Black male, was fatally shot near a convenience store after an encounter with 52-year-old bread delivery driver Jonathan Scott. The shooting followed an alleged theft of a lunchbox from Scott’s truck. Scott testified he tried to scare the teenager into returning the lunchbox, yelled for him to drop it, and fired multiple times as Bearfield ran away, saying he aimed over the teen’s head from about 225 feet. One bullet struck Bearfield in the back of the head; he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Scott was arrested and initially charged with murder; the charge was later reduced to manslaughter. His defense sought a lesser criminally negligent homicide charge, arguing he was unaware of the risk though he should have been. The prosecution said Scott acted recklessly with conscious disregard for human life. After less than two hours of deliberation, a jury found Scott guilty of manslaughter, making a finding that his actions were reckless in causing Mustafa Bearfield’s death. The conviction carried exposure to up to 20 years in prison.

Did anyone who knew Mustafa or witnessed that morning come forward with information about what led up to the shooting?