On February 29, 2024, at about 1:30 a.m., 39-year-old Albert Dewey Meek III was fatally shot at Jack’s Gas Station, 1440 North Dinuba Boulevard in Visalia, California. Surveillance footage showed Meek in a verbal argument with someone in a parked silver car; that person, identified later that day as a 17-year-old male, exited the vehicle, drew a firearm from his waistband, and shot Meek. Emergency personnel took Meek to Kaweah Health Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Visalia Police Department’s Violent Crimes Unit led the investigation with help from Porterville Police, the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office, and Dinuba Police. Detectives located and arrested the 17-year-old during a traffic stop on Main Street in Porterville; he was charged in connection with Meek’s death. Jack, the gas station owner, said both the victim and the suspect were familiar customers and described Meek as a good person who often arrived by bicycle. A viewing for Meek was held April 4, 2024, at Salser & Dillard Funeral Chapel and he was buried at Visalia Public Cemetery.

Meek had prior legal troubles, including a January 2024 arrest for a felony parole violation and July 2022 charges of voluntary manslaughter and assault with a firearm. The shooting occurred amid other gun violence in Visalia that day, with another shooting about thirty minutes earlier. If anyone saw activity near Jack’s Gas Station around 1:30 a.m. on February 29 or has information about this case, please come forward.