Megan Brooke Poston was 16 and a junior at Cabell Midland High School when she was shot and killed in Huntington, West Virginia, in the predawn hours of May 22, 2005. She had attended prom the night before in an orange-and-yellow dress with Huntington High junior Michael Christopher Dillon. After the dance the two ended up at a Charleston Avenue residence with Eddrick Jamon Clark and Donté Ward; all four were shot at about 4:30 a.m. Neighbors reported hearing a burst of shots and one witness said a frightened girl pleaded with the gunman not to kill her during a pause in the shooting.

Investigators quickly explored whether Ward was the primary target and whether the killings were retaliation tied to drugs. A cooperating witness later implicated a man known as Jamal Douglas (Jamal LaRonne Ray) and Shannon Dennis gave a statement saying he had witnessed Douglas commit the murders and helped him leave the area. Police recovered two firearms from Douglas’s residence and he pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm in federal court; he was not prosecuted in the quadruple homicide. Cherylethia Bunny Holmes has also been identified publicly by investigators as someone they believe ordered the attack; she has denied involvement and has not been charged in these killings.