On the evening of April 21, 2017, 18-year-old Yanuel Viloria was sitting on the stairs in a rear hallway of an apartment building at 180 Ruggles Street in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood when a group of young men entered and a confrontation occurred. Surveillance footage captured part of the encounter; one of the newcomers, later identified as Malik Phillips, was seen holding an object that appeared to be a firearm just before the shooting. The actual gunfire took place out of camera view in the stairwell and Viloria was struck by multiple rounds from at least two different firearms. He was found suffering from those wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Within a week police arrested two suspects, Malik Phillips of Waltham and 19-year-old Robert Silva-Prentice of Boston, and charged both with murder. Prosecutors later said the shooting was rooted in gang conflict between the Orchard Park Trail Blazers and the Ruggles Street Rockets, though Viloria was not known to have gang involvement. In December 2018 a jury convicted Phillips of first-degree murder and Silva-Prentice of second-degree murder; both received life sentences, with Phillips ineligible for parole and Silva-Prentice eligible for parole.

Did anyone who knew Yanuel or who was in that building that night ever come forward with additional details?