On the evening of May 20, 2024, a burst of gunfire outside Gush’s Thirsty Bear on East Washington Avenue in Elmira, New York, ended the life of Norman D. Cherry, a 43-year-old Black / African American man. The shooting happened at about 10:52 p.m. Cherry was not at the scene when police arrived; he had been taken by a private vehicle to a local hospital and later transferred to Robert Packer Hospital, where he died. Investigators found he had been shot six times.

Elmira Police identified Cherry as the victim and opened a homicide investigation. In the weeks that followed, authorities developed leads that pointed to an out-of-state suspect; a superior court warrant was issued on June 21, 2024, charging Dante M. Baldwin with Murder in the Second Degree and two counts of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree. Baldwin, from Springfield, Massachusetts, was located and taken into custody in the Springfield area on October 8, 2024, and extradited to New York to await arraignment.

Does anyone who knew Norman Cherry or who was near East Washington Avenue that night have information that could clarify what happened?