In the early hours of Sunday, May 21, 2017, 19-year-old Ruot Gach of Carroll, Iowa, was found dead from gunshot wounds in the parking lot of Zion Lutheran Church at 4300 Beaver Avenue in Des Moines’ Beaverdale neighborhood. A Sudanese engagement ceremony was underway inside the church, but police did not believe the violence outside was directly connected to that event. Neighbors reported hearing agitated voices and a rapid series of sounds that resembled fireworks around 2:30 a.m.

Three other men were wounded in the incident. Yien Nhial, 27, was found at the scene and taken to hospital; Simon Joseph, 23, was located wounded inside a vehicle police later stopped; and 28-year-old Tethloach Jock sought hospital treatment separately. Investigators recovered a firearm at the scene and later, on May 27, arrested Jock during a traffic stop after officers found a stolen, loaded handgun in the vehicle. That weapon led to trafficking stolen weapons charges but was not announced as tied to Gach’s killing pending forensic analysis. No one has been charged in Ruot Gach’s death.

Are there witnesses or anyone with information about who was in the church parking lot that morning?