James Farentino Madden, a 41-year-old Black man from Muscle Shoals, was killed by gunfire in Birmingham on May 17, 2014. Authorities were called late that Saturday night to Lawson Road after someone found him lying in the street; he had been shot multiple times and the case was treated as a homicide.

Reports identify Madden as being from Muscle Shoals even though his death occurred in Birmingham, leaving the impression of a life that ended away from home on a stretch of roadway that raises unanswered questions.

Madden’s own court history includes prior criminal cases in Alabama, including a first-degree theft conviction mentioned in appellate decisions, but those records relate to his past and do not explain who shot him on Lawson Road. Did anyone in Birmingham that night see something that could help explain what happened to James Madden?