On the afternoon of March 17, 2023, an argument in a convenience store parking lot on South Westmoreland Road near the Dallas–Duncanville border escalated to gunfire. According to an affidavit, 20-year-old Taquan Cooks shot 23-year-old Jacory Simpson after a dispute; Simpson then drew his own handgun and shot 19-year-old Donavon Jones in the head. Donavon, a Black man, was taken to a hospital and died on March 18, 2023.

Simpson collapsed after fleeing and was hospitalized in critical condition. An arrest warrant named Simpson in Donavon’s death, and Cooks was initially arrested and charged with assault for shooting Simpson; after Simpson died on March 21, 2023, prosecutors upgraded the charge against Cooks to murder. The evening after Donavon’s death, a candlelight vigil at the same location was disrupted when a white Chrysler drove by and occupants opened fire, wounding four people, including Donavon’s mother; no arrests in that drive-by shooting had been reported.

Was anyone in the area that day able to see what led up to the initial confrontation or the vigil shooting?