On a Sunday afternoon in Birmingham’s Acipco-Finley neighborhood, 32-year-old Cortez Rhynes was shot dead during what began as a meeting to settle payment for vehicle repairs. The encounter took place just before 3:00 p.m. on March 6, 2016, near the 1700 block of 26th Avenue North. Rodarius Kwamaine Grimes shot Rhynes multiple times and fled the scene, leaving Rhynes dead beside a vehicle; investigators recovered ten shell casings where the shooting occurred.

Grimes later turned himself in. He told authorities he believed Rhynes was reaching for a firearm, but no other weapon was found at the scene. At the time of the shooting, Grimes was on probation for unlawful possession of a controlled substance and had prior convictions including an assault conviction and a previously dismissed murder charge. In November 2017 a jury found Grimes guilty of capital murder in Rhynes’s death.

Did anyone in the Acipco-Finley area witness the meeting or the moments leading up to the shooting?