Xavier Barkon was 19 when he was shot inside a parked vehicle on Oak Hill Avenue in Boston’s Mattapan neighborhood on the evening of August 11, 2022. Police say the shooting happened about 8:30 p.m.; Barkon was found with a gunshot wound to the chest, taken to a hospital, and died the next day.

Investigators focused on a suspect identified as Kamal Oliver, also known as Maly. A witness who grew up with Barkon and had been Oliver’s regular hairstylist described being in a nearby car with another person when an argument between Oliver and Barkon escalated. The witness heard one gunshot, then fled; she did not see the shooting itself or a firearm. Twelve days after the shooting investigators showed her a single photograph of Oliver, which she identified.

The court later rejected a defense motion to suppress that single-photo identification, noting the witness’s prior familiarity with Oliver. Did anyone in the Mattapan area see or hear anything that night that could help clarify what happened?