Derek J. Hale, 25, a recently discharged Marine sergeant from Manassas, Virginia, died on November 9, 2006, on the front steps of a Wilmington, Delaware, row house. Plainclothes officers converged that afternoon as part of a broader probe into members of the Pagans Motorcycle Club. Witnesses and later filings describe commands to show his hands, three separate Taser discharges, and three close-range gunshots that left Hale, a husband and father, mortally wounded.

Hale’s family filed a federal wrongful death complaint alleging officers never identified themselves, shocked him three times, and fired while he was incapacitated and vomiting; the suit named multiple city and state police figures and identified Lieutenant William Brown as the officer who fired. Officials said the encounter occurred during a sweeping investigation and that officers believed Hale could be armed when he kept his hands in his sweatshirt pocket. Authorities later concluded there was no basis for criminal charges. In December 2010 the City of Wilmington agreed to pay Hale’s widow $875,000 to resolve the suit.

Did anyone who knew Derek or who was in that neighborhood that day see what happened on those steps?