Darryn Boles Brooks, a 25-year-old Black man, was found dead in the 1000 block of 11th Street in Des Moines on March 9, 2019, the victim of multiple gunshot wounds. Investigators say Brooks had given an acquaintance, Larontez Javon Buchanan, a ride to his girlfriend’s house after a family gathering; instead Brooks was shot near Cheatom Park, his vehicle and money taken and the keys discarded.

The Des Moines Police Department arrested 19-year-old Larontez Javon Buchanan in late April 2019 while he was already in custody on unrelated charges. Prosecutors said Buchanan at first gave a false account but later admitted being present; forensic testing reportedly found Brooks’s blood on Buchanan’s clothing, and Buchanan had changed clothes immediately after the shooting. Buchanan was charged with first-degree murder and first-degree robbery, and a jury found him guilty of both charges in December 2019. The murder conviction carried a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.

Who knew Darryn or remembers him from the neighborhood and can share anything that might fill in the final hours before he was killed?