On June 12, 2023, a dispute at Aloha Backyard, a bar in the 3100 block of S. Bryant Avenue in Oklahoma City, escalated outside the venue and ended with 31-year-old Justin Ray Allen Smith shot dead. Officers from the Oklahoma City Police Department arrived about 3:30 a.m. and found Smith deceased from a gunshot wound. The man who had argued with Smith, 21-year-old Johnathon Thomas, remained at the scene, was interviewed by police and was arrested; he was booked into the Oklahoma County Jail on a complaint of first-degree murder and initially held without bond.

Justin Smith was born December 19, 1991, and is survived by two daughters, Leah and Kinsley, as well as siblings and other family members. Family remembered him for his love of spending time with loved ones, his interest in CrossFit and playing on a softball team. The case is still working its way through the courts.

If anyone was at Aloha Backyard that night or has information about what led to the argument, please come forward.