Noah Hunter Brittain was 17 when he was shot and killed by a Lonoke County Sheriff’s deputy in the early morning hours of June 23, 2021. Brittain had been working on his truck’s transmission and was taking the vehicle for a test drive around 3 a.m. near an auto repair shop south of Cabot when Sergeant Michael Davis stopped the truck. A passenger said the vehicle was having trouble and had stopped; Brittain was at the rear of the truck holding a container his family later said was antifreeze to chock the tires as the truck rolled backward when Davis fired, striking Brittain in the neck. No firearms were found in or near the truck.

The deputy did not activate his body camera until after the shot, a violation that led to his termination from the Lonoke County Sheriff’s Office. A special prosecutor charged Davis with felony manslaughter in September 2021; he pleaded not guilty and went to trial in March 2022. A jury acquitted him of manslaughter but convicted him of negligent homicide; he received the maximum one-year jail term for that offense and a $1,000 fine. Brittain’s family has since pushed for Hunter’s Law to require officers in Arkansas to wear and activate body cameras during their shifts.

Did anyone witness the traffic stop or the moments just before the shooting who can add details about what happened at the rear of the truck?