On the night of June 1, 2018, 29-year-old Taquise Johnson was found in an open-air garage beneath the Shore Plaza apartments in East Boston suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Police responded to a shots-fired call near 800 Border Street just before midnight; Johnson was pronounced dead at the scene. He was a Black male from Boston.

Investigators say Johnson had been socializing with several people that evening and walked with another man, later identified as Jeremy Menedez, 29, of Nashua, New Hampshire, to a darker, more secluded area of the garage. Menedez is accused of shooting Johnson multiple times. A second firearm that had not been fired was found near Johnson’s body.

After the shooting the accused fled in a car reportedly driven by 23-year-old Kavara Rivera of Chelsea. Menedez was later located and arrested in New Hampshire and extradited to Boston to face a murder charge; Rivera was indicted by a Suffolk County Grand Jury on accessory after the fact to murder and allegedly lying to investigators.