Daniel Thomas Mayers, 33, was fatally shot on the afternoon of May 22, 2023, on Columbia Road in Dorchester. Known as Danny, he was a pastor at the Family of God church in Haverhill and a longtime employee of Boston Public Schools, where he worked in the Welcome Center, Transportation, and Special Education departments. He grew up in Dorchester; his father, the Rev. Dr. Thomas W. O. Mayers, served as rector at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on Columbia Road for nearly two decades.

Police found Mayers inside his vehicle just before 5 p.m. after reports of gunfire; he was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. The shooting took place in broad daylight near Lilla Frederick Pilot Middle School, which was placed in safe mode as a precaution. Family members and Boston police appealed for information as homicide detectives investigated.

On March 6, 2025, a suspect turned himself in at Boston Police Headquarters and was arrested on a warrant. Authorities charged 21-year-old Amari Williams of Acada, Georgia, with murder and carrying a firearm without a license; prosecutors say Williams and an accomplice, Elijah Clunie, lured Mayers to Dorchester purportedly to buy an iPhone. Clunie was killed in an unrelated shooting in September 2023. The case was in court after an arraignment in Suffolk Superior Court. Did anyone in Dorchester or the local community see Mayers or his vehicle that afternoon?